Taming the Kyuubi
by ILuvStrwbrry
Summary: Hinata's story. cannon.
1. Prologue

**Taming the Kyuubi: Hinata's story**

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters or situations you may recognize_

**Prologue: The day it all started**

My name is Hyuuga Hinata and this is the story of how I tamed the Kyuubi no Kitsune. It was not an easy feat let me tell you. I wasn't even planning on it. My intentions were clear, get my long time crush Uzumaki Naruto to notice me. What I got instead was a giant nine-tailed fox for a pet. Before I can go on and on about the Kyuubi let me start at the beginning. See it all started many years ago when I was still a student at the ninja academy.

My mother asked me to pour tea for my father and the visiting elders for their big important meeting. I was so nervous that I was shaking slightly. I tried to control my shaking but my father turned his glare on me and I completely overreacted. I started shaking so bad, trying not to do anything wrong in front of him that I ended up spilling the tea all over the floor. In my rush clean up my spill I ended up breaking a couple of tea cups. I was embarrassed and I knew my father was disappointed that I couldn't do something as simple as pouring tea without messing up.

I wondered how many times he wished my younger sister Hanabi would've been born first. Hanabi didn't get nervous at all. She was an excellent fighter and she seemed to do everything so perfectly. I bet she wouldn't have spilled the tea. Pushing that out of my head. my mother reminded me that I was going to be late for class.

In a rush I headed over to the academy knowing that I was going to get a stern lecture from my father later, or worse, he'd just look at me like I am the world's biggest disappointment.

Naturally I got to class late. There seemed to be something of a commotion going on in the corner of the room. It was nothing big, all of the other girls were fawning over Uchiha Sasuke. I honestly didn't see what the big deal was. He didn't show any attention to any of the girls fawning over him. It seemed like he wanted to be left alone. I walked past the mini harem and entered the classroom.

My favorite seat was open and I quickly went and sat down. Next to me Inuzuka Kiba was already snoring slightly with his tiny dog Akamaru on his head.

Iruka-sensei entered the class and it came to order.

It seemed like today was going to be a history lesson on the first and second Hokages. I tried to pay attention, I needed to know these things in order to be a great ninja in the future. However I was slightly distracted by the boy sitting in the opposite row, one column ahead of me. His name is Uzumaki Naruto, he had blonde pointy hair, and bright blue eyes. But the thing I liked most about him was his confidence. He never shied away from anything and always seemed to say what was on his mind, unlike me who could never get my words out straight.

Suddenly Naruto stood up and I turned away blushing, as if I hadn't been staring at him for the past ten minutes. "I am going to be Hokage one day, and I'll be even better than those old men!" Naruto exclaimed to the whole class.

I could barely imagine being the head of my clan let alone the head of the whole village. I seemed to be the only person who was impressed. The rest of the class laughed while Iruka-sensei folded his arms in anger. I knew he wasn't really angry, probably more annoyed. It didn't seem like a class went by where Naruto didn't declare he was going to become Hokage.

After class I stood to the side and watched as all of other students got picked up by their parents. Naruto seemed to be all alone. I wondered where his parents were, but before I could think on it too long my father showed up to escort me home.

I couldn't help but to think how sad Naruto looked all alone.

We were halfway back to the Hyuuga Clan barracks when suddenly Hoheto, appeared. He was a member of the branch family, and recently became a jonin.

"Hiashi-sama, there seems to be an emergency. Sandaime Hokage has asked for your presences."

Father turned to me "Go straight home, and make no deviations"

"Yes, father" I replied.

The two of them left and I steadily made my way home. On my way I literally ran into three boys. They didn't look that much older than me, but they didn't look nice either. They started bullying me because I'm the heiress to the Hyuuga clan. They thought I was looking down on them. It wasn't true at all, I just wasn't paying attention to where I was going. After they pushed me to the ground and made me beg to the point of tears I was sure they were going to beat me up. Suddenly there was a rumble and I looked up.

Naruto was there like my very own knight in shinny armor. If it were a fairy tale Naruto would've beat those guys up and then carried me away to safety. Unfortunately, he was out numbered. The bullies began to attack Naruto. I desperately wanted to do something.

Suddenly someone called my name. It was Hoheto. The bullies ran away just before Hoheto appeared.

"Are you okay?" Hoheto asked looking at my tears.

"I'm fine" I started to say but then he looked beyond me and his eyes went hard. Everyone seemed to look at Naruto this way. I didn't understand it, and when I tried to ask about it I was told I was too young.

"He saved me" I tried to explain but Hoheto grabbed my arm and began to walk away.

I wanted to thank Naruto but I didn't know how. That day a feeling irrupted in me and I knew that I would never be the same again.


	2. Chapter 1

**Taming the Kyuubi: Hinata's Story**

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters or situations you may recognize._

**Chapter 1: Genin**

My father looked at me with disappointment clearly on his face. I was getting used to those looks. I looked down at the floor wishing I could be invisible.

Today the class rank came out and I wasn't at the top of any of the list. I didn't get as good of marks in my studies like Haruno Sakura, whom Naruto seemed to have a crush on. I didn't get top marks in hand to hand combat like the ever popular Sasuke.

It's not like I did bad or anything, my grades were just average. I couldn't afford to have average grades if I wanted to be the next head of the Hyuuga clan. How did it reflect on the family if my cousin Neji managed to make the top of every list last year and I couldn't even get second place? Even though Neji is my cousin he's from a branch family. I was supposed to be the one with the perfect grades, it was almost as if fate were mocking me.

I heard the sound of folding paper and I looked up.

My father was no longer looking at me and he put away the paper with the class list.

"Hanabi!"

My younger sister appeared suddenly and silently.

"Meet me in the training grounds. You can show me how much you've improved with your kunai skills."

"Yes father."

He didn't even look at me. Father walked right past me not saying a word.

If possible I felt worse than before. I rushed to my room and grabbed my new leaf headband. I had just graduated from the academy the day before and today I would be officially be a genin. I didn't like the way the headband felt around my head so I tied it around my neck and wore it like a necklace instead.

I got to class pretty early. The only person earlier than me was Uchiha Sasuke. He seemed a bit more reserved than always. He sat at a desk with his hands clasped and a determined look on his face. He had trademark Uchiha black eyes and was wearing standard Uchiha clothes. I remember over hearing my parents talking about him years ago. They said that the whole Uchiha clan had been assassinated except for him.

Slowly the class began to fill up. I watched Naruto enter the classroom and I was so happy. I heard a rumor that he hadn't passed but it obviously wasn't true. Naruto was sitting two rows over wearing a Konoha headbead instead of the green goggles he normally would wear.

Suddenly a thought hit me. What if Naruto and I got placed into the same group? What would I do? Would be it be a good thing or a bad thing? Even after all this time I still hadn't gathered the courage to talk to him. What if we got into the same group, what would I do?

Suddenly my thoughts were interrupted by two girls barging into the room. One was tall with long blond hair and wearing purple, the other was wearing red with long pink hair. The blonde's name is Yamaka Ino. She was clearly the most popular girl in school. Whatever she said was law. Once she said that Sasuke only likes girls with long hair and then nearly every girl in our school began growing out their hair. Naturally Ino had the longest and shiniest hair. The other girl was Haruno Sakura. She used to be Ino's best friend but then they began fighting almost every day over the simplest things.

Naruto got up from his seat when the girls entered the classroom. He seemed to be blushing and I wondered if he only liked them because they were popular, or maybe he liked girls who had long hair. I began to fret again wondering if I should grow my hair out when suddenly Sakura and Ino pushed Naruto out of their way.

I leaned over my seat trying to get a better glimpse of Naruto. Maybe if he was hurt I could give him some of my special made medicine that I kept on me at all times. I fumbled with my pockets trying to get the medicine out when suddenly Naruto got up. Ignoring the girls arguing over Sasuke, Naruto jumped on the desk right in front of Sasuke.

Like the rest of the class I watched the two of them with rabid attention. It wasn't uncommon for Naruto to pick a fight with Sasuke. Most of the time Sasuke just ignored him and continued to seem bored, sometimes they would get into fights, and Naruto would lose.

I was leaning on the edge of my seat watching when suddenly someone bumped into Naruto causing him to fall into Sasuke. From my point of view it looked like the two of them were kissing. I didn't seem to be the only person who thought so because suddenly all of the girls in class were upset.

I was worried they were going to beat Naruto to a pulp when the door opened and Iruka-sensei walked in.

Iruka had a list and explained that we would be forming three man squads. My nervousness set back in. I kept my fingers crossed under the table, still uncertain if I wanted to be in a group with Naruto or not.

I waited anxiously for my named to be called.

"Team 7: Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke."

Naruto seemed to be happy to be in a group with Sakura but not so much for Sasuke. I didn't know if I should've felt relieved or sad.

"Team 8: Hyuuga Hinata," I perked up at the sound of my name, "Aburame Shino, and Inuzuka Kiba."

I didn't know much about those two. I knew that Shino seemed like the quiet shy type like me, I also knew he came from a clan that worked with insects. Kiba was more loud and ranchy, when he wasn't being a part of the lazy group. He used to cause trouble with Naruto, Nara Shikamaru, and Amachiki Chouji. I knew that Kiba came from a clan that used ninja dogs.

One by one jonin ninjas came in the classroom getting their teams. My teacher was one of the first to show. Her name was Kurenai, she had long black hair and red eyes.

Kurenai-sensei had a nice calm voice. She introduced herself telling us she liked takowasa and shochu and she disliked cake. She said we should introduce ourselves by saying what our hobbies were, what we liked, and what we disliked.

Kiba jumped right into it giving us a detailed description of all the things he liked and disliked. Shino kept his answers simple and to the point. When it was my turn I was nervous.

"um…my name is Hyuuga Hinata. I like zenzai and cinnamon rolls and I dislike crabs and shrimp. Um…I guess my hobby is pressing flowers."

After our introductions Kurenai told us that the tree of us were grouped together because of our tracking abilities. My family has a kekki genkai. Everyone in the Hyuuga family is born with pearly white eyes and with a ninjutsu called Byakugan we can see things from a long distance.

Kurenai dismissed us for the day, but told us we would meet up the next day for a training exercise.

That night I was in the kitchen making tea when we got a visitor. It was Kurenai sensei. At first I thought she had came to see me, but she asked for my father who was training with Hanabi. Then I thought maybe I did something to displease her and she was going to prevent me from being a ninja. I couldn't stand the thought. I was already a disappointment to my father I had to prove myself in some way. So I snuck through the hallway and listened.

"…Are you sure it's alright?" Kurenai was asking, "Hinata is a member of the Hyuuga main family working as a genin may cause her to be surrounded by death."

"Do what you wish, Hyuuga doesn't need her."

My heart stopped. I wasn't needed. It was one thing for me to think that my father disapproved it was another to know that he thought I was worthless.

The door slid opened and Kurenai-sensei made eye contact with me. Before she could see the tears I rushed off to my room.

Nothing was going the way I thought it would go. I don't know why I expected my father to be proud because I finally became a genin.

I sat in my room thinking of all the times in my life that I had messed up. I needed to be better, stronger, faster. Maybe if I trained just a bit harder, tried just a bit more than my father wouldn't be ashamed of me. Maybe I could prove them all wrong.

"I've hidden 30 kunais throughout this training ground. They are specially marked with the symbol of Konoha. Your mission is to find all 30 kunais and bring them to this stone marker by noon" Kurenai-sensei said the next day.

"Sounds easy enough" Kiba boasted.

I doubted if she left them in plain sight. I knew this was a test to see how well we used our tracking senses.

"Your time starts now, go!"

"If we split up we should be able to find them quicker" Kiba said ready to go out on the hunt.

"But if we stick together we'd be able to find all of them" Shino said. "It'll work better if we have a plan. Hinata, use your byakugan to scan the immediate area. I'll check with the local bugs and see if they noticed anything out of place and Kiba, you can use your nose check for lingering sents."

"Okay!" Kiba said, earger.

"_Byakugan!_"

I scanned the area closest to us. My Byakugan wasn't that strong yet I couldn't see to far distances. Fifty meters was my max and this area had to be at least twenty times that.

"There in the tree, 12 meters away" I said pointing out the first one I saw.

"Wait!" Shino shouted but too late Kiba went off in the direction I pointed out.

Suddenly Kiba was yanked into the air by his ankle. Akamaru barked furiously not liking his master being shrung up by a tree.

"You shouldn't rush off without checking for traps first" Shino pointed out.

"Sorry, I should've seen that" I said meekly.

"That's okay Hinata. I won't rush off on my own next time"

This time I checked more carefully, there wasn't another trap so Shino grabbed the kunai from the tree and cut Kiba down.

It seemed like we were going to make an okay team after all.


	3. Chapter 2

**Taming the Kyuubi: Hinata's story**

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters or situations you may recognize_

_**Thanks to Avatar L & Gaaralover2247 for reviewing! Here is the next two chapters.**_

**Chapter 2: Chunin Exams**

Time went by and I wish I could say everything was going well. Team Eight was doing well, we succeeded in all of our missions, however there times when I would mess up. It was almost like I couldn't do anything well. Kurenai-sensei would praise me when I did something well, trying to boast my confidence. I got along well with my teammates as well. Shino liked to play the role of silent leader if Kurenai was not around. He was really smart and even helped me train when we weren't on missions. I grew used to Kiba's joking manner. I came to understand he liked to be loud and boastful because he lived in a house with women and he felt the need to prove his manliness. They all seemed to believe in me so I trained hard so they wouldn't have to constantly make up for my mistakes.

"Neesan"

I looked up from the flowers I was currently working on to see Hanabi standing in the doorway.

"Hanabi"

"I heard dad and the elders say that the Chunin exams are coming up. Neji-Niisan and his team are going to try and take it. Do you know if your team is going to take it too?"

The Chunin exams? I hadn't even been thinking about them. All of our missions had been going well but they were mostly D-rank missions with a couple of C-ranks here and there. Chunins handled harder C-rank and B-rank missions, they also were able to lead their own three or four man teams. Some Chunins stopped doing missions to become teachers. But I heard that the exams themselves aren't an easy thing to pass.

"I don't know" I said finally answering Hanabi's question.

"Maybe you should, all the Feudal Lords will be at the final show, as well as all of the clan heads."

I knew what she was really saying. If I partook in the Chunin Exams then dad would be watching me. Maybe, maybe if I took the exams and did well I could finally prove to dad that I'm worth being his daughter.

"Thank you Hanabi" I said suddenly standing up. "I'll ask Kurenai-sensei right away."

I ran out of the house, careful not to make too much noise because I didn't want to annoy my parents. I wasn't watching where I was going and I ran into someone. I fell down on impact.

"I'm sorry!" I apologized automatically and looked up to see my cousin Neji standing over me.

Neji had a look of disdain on his face, "Watch where you're going, Hinata-sama" he said with a sneer.

"Right" I said getting up, "Sorry." I walked away quickly leaving a snickering Neji behind.

My cousin Neji is a year older than me and they say he is a genius. I constantly hear people whisper how come I can't be as good as he is. Neji had top marks in his class at the academy and he's even been on B-rank missions. He would make a good head of Hyuuga if he were from the main house. Instead he's from the branch house and I think he hates me because of it.

Neji always sneers whenever he sees me. I try to be nice and polite to everyone I meet but when it comes to Neji it just doesn't matter.

* * *

Kurenai-sensei was leaving her apartment just as I approached.

"Hinata, what are you doing here?" she asked. I noticed she wasn't in her usual ninja dress, instead she was dressed like she was going to a fancy dinner. Maybe she had a date. I shouldn't have bothered her on her free time.

"I just heard about the Chunin exams and I was wondering if you were going to sign up team 8. I'm not saying you have to….or maybe we're not ready…it is a bit soon….we've only been Genin for a few months. Um…never mind" I ranted nervously. I let the idea of the Chunin exams excite me before I really thought about it. But now that I'm here standing in front of Kurenai-sensei I'm not sure.

"I was going to make the announcement tomorrow when the whole team is together. I think you three are more than ready to face the Chunin exams. I'll give you all of the details tomorrow morning with Kiba and Shino."

"Okay."

I started to head back home when suddenly I heard a familiar voice. I heard Naruto and team 7 went on a mission in the land of Waves, they must be back already. I peeked around a corner to see Naruto talking to three kids who were wearing green goggles on their foreheads just like Naruto used to. Naruto seemed to be telling them all about his adventures. I was happy to see that Naruto was doing well. I remembered watching him when he was sad and all alone. Seeing him with other kids made me believe that maybe he had friends after all.

* * *

Kurenai submitted our request to participate in the Chunin exams the next day. Kiba seemed excited at the prospect of proving himself while Shino showed indifference. The Chunin exams are a three part test. We weren't given the details about the first two tests but the third test would be one on one battles in front of the whole village and all of the visitors.

With my teammates I entered the location of the first test. Many ninjas had gathered, the whole room was nearly filled. I was surprised there were so many genins in Konoha. There were only nine of us who were rookies, but there were also ninjas from other villages as well. I had never heard of Otogakure or Takigakure. But there were quite a few more ninjas from Sunagakure and Amegakure and those two I recognized from history class in school.

Everyone seemed on edge and ready to prove themselves. There was a lot of chatting and boasting of skills. Typical to his way Naruto swore in front of everyone that he wouldn't lose. It was cool that he was that confident that he could laugh about things like that.

A tall man with scars on his face was our proctor. He introduced himself as Morino Ibiki, he had a deep voice that said that he had been thought a lot of things. There were a lot of genins with him who were there to watch us take the test. Most people seemed surprised that the first test would be a written test. I had kind of figured when we met in a classroom instead of out in a field or training ground.

We had assigned seats so we couldn't cheat off our teammates. I blushed when I noticed that my seat was next to Naruto. I wished him good luck and was surprised my face didn't burn I was blushing so hard.

Ibiki was at the chalkboard writing down the rules for the test.

"Questions will not be allowed, so listen carefully" Ibiki explained while he wrote, "The first rule, you guys all start with ten points. The test is made of ten questions and each is worth one but but the test uses a subtraction system. If you answer all questions correctly you keep your points, if you get three wrong you lose three points and will only have seven. Second Rule, this is a team test whether you pass or not will be determined by the combined score of your teammates. Each team will compete to see how many point they can hold on to from the initial team total of thirty."

Sakura tried to interrupt with a question but Ibiki told her to shut up. I thought it was kind of rude but I listened as he continued on.

"The third rule is that during the exam anyone caught by the testing officers doing sneaky activities namely cheating will have 2 point subtracted for every offense. There will be some who lose all their points during the exam and will be asked to leave."

That explained why there were so many Chunins to watch.

"Realize that the pathetic ones that get caught cheating will be destroying themselves, as shinobis trying to achieve the level of chuunin be proud ninjas. And the final rule is that those who lose all their initial points during the test and those that don't answer any questions correctly will be failed along with their 2 teammates. The exam will last one hour. Begin!"

I went through and read all of the questions first. They weren't easy questions. Question number ten was the big one. It stated that the question wouldn't be revealed until 45 minutes after the test begins. That meant I only had forty-five minutes to answer the first nine questions.

Bracing myself I thought back to everything the examiner had said. We're being tested as a team even though we're separated from our team. We could lose two points for every time we got caught cheating. That's it. We don't lose points for cheating, we lose points for getting caught cheating. That means the real test is to see how well we can cheat without getting caught. I bet there were some examiners sitting in the regular seats who have the right answers. All I have to do is make sure I'm copying from the right person.

I closed my eyes and calmed myself. _Byakugan._ Who's the smartest person in our class? Sakura! Using my kekki-genkai I zoomed in on her paper where she was rapidly filling out answers. All I had to do was copy. I could hear Akamaru barking and I knew he was giving Kiba the answers. Shino would be using his bugs to tell him the answers, it would all work out well for us.

Suddenly one of the chunins threw his kunai and it landed on the test paper of the person behind me.

"What was that for?" the guy said angrily.

"You messed up 5 times. You fail"

That just proved my theory. We had to cheat but not get caught.

I glanced sideways at Naruto. He looked freaked out and his paper was blank. While the examiner kicked out the guy and his teammates I quickly used the distraction to whisper to Naruto.

"You can look at my test?"

What if he failed and didn't make it past the first part.

"Hinata, why are you willing to do that?" Naruto asked. Was he suspicious?

"Because…" could I tell him? "I don't want you to disappear" I whispered. "The nine of us are the only rookies, we need to work together."

"Oh, I see" he said but after a moment he didn't write anything down. "An incredible ninja like me doesn't need to cheat."

I frowned did he not understand? "Plus you can get into trouble too because you helped me cheat."  
Oh, he was looking out for me. That was sweet, just like Naruto.

"I'm sorry…you're right" I said. We only had fifteen minutes left until the final question would be revealed.

More and more people began to get caught cheating.

"Okay now we will begin the tenth question" Ibiki said. "Before we get to it I'd like to go over the added rules for this question."

Added rules? They really aren't going to make this easy on us.

A student who had taken a bathroom break came back and Ibiki continued "These are the rules of desperation. For this 10th question you must decide whether you will take it or not. If you chose not to, your points will be reduced to zero. You fail along with your two teammates." There was a lot of chatter and uproar over this new rule. "And now the other rule. If you choose to take it and answer incorrectly that person will lose the right to ever take the chuunin selection exam again."

"What kind of stupid rule is that?" Kiba yelled. "There are guys here who have taken the exam before."  
"This year it's my rules" Ibiki said. "But I am giving you a way out. Those that aren't confident can choose not to take it and try again next year."

There were quite a few whispers about this.

"Let the 10th question begin. Those that do not wish to take it, raise your hand. Once your number is confirmed leave."

Some people began to get up and leave.

Was the tenth question that bad?

Shakily Naruto raised his hand. What was he doing? This wasn't like him at all.

"Don't under estimate me. I won't run!" Naruto exclaimed. I calmed a little bit, that's so like Naruto to make a bold claim. "I'll take it. Even if I'm a genin forever. I'll will myself to becoming Hokage anyway, so I don't care. I'm not afraid" Naruto continued on.

"I'll ask you again. Your life is riding on this decision, this is your last chance quit" Ibiki warned, but I knew most people would stay seated after that declaration from Naruto. That's the kind of person he was. He affected people with his words making them believe they could do anything.

"I'll follow my unbending words. That's my ninja way."

There was a pause.

"Good decisions. Now to everyone still remaining" Ibiki paused for dramatic display. "I congratulate you on passing the first test!"

I don't know what I was expecting but that wasn't it. We passed just by staying? I guess that that was the tenth question, a test of our resolve.

Ibiki went on to explain that the first part of the test was to test our information gathering skills. The purpose was to cheat without getting caught. Ibiki even went as far as taking off his hair-scarf so we could see all the scars on his head. It looked like had be tortured for information. I was grateful when he put covered his head again.

* * *

Just as Ibiki wished us luck on the second test a massive thing came rolling into the room. Come to find out it was only the next proctor. She introduced herself as Mintarashi Anko with as much enthusiasm as her entrance. Her face fell when she saw how many people were left over.

"Ibiki! You left 26 teams! The test was way too easy this time" Anko said.

"There are a lot of outstanding ones" Ibiki said.

"That's fine" Anko shrugged. "I'll at least cut them in half in the second test. I'll explain everything once we've changed places, please follow me."

I joined up with my team before following Anko out of the building. She began to lead us through a familiar path. This was a place I had heard of but never been to before.

We stopped outside of a heavily guarded gate.

"Welome to the stage for the second test, Practice Arena 44 also known as The Forest of Death!"

I heard many rumors about the forest of death and none of them were good.

"You'll soon find out why it's called the Forest of Death" the proctor went on.

"I'm not afraid!" Naruto said clearly still excited about passing the first test.

Suddenly she had a kunai and there was a cut on Naruto's face. Believe it or not the creepy woman then licked Naruto's face. Sad to say that wasn't the worst part. A man with a really long tongue gave the lady back her kunai using his tongue. It was gross and I was worried for Naruto being caught up in the middle of it.

"This should be fun" Anko said, "Now before we start the second test, there's something I have to pass out. You must sign these agreement forms. There will be deaths in this one and if I don't have you sign these it will all be my responsibility."

This lady was creepier than the previous guy with all his scars.

"I'm going to explain the second test, and then you can sign it afterwards. And then each team will check in at the booth behind me."

Once all of the forms were passed out Anko continued "Simply put you will attempt the ultimate survival. First I'll explain the area where it will take place. Around practice arena 44 there are 44 locked gates, forests, river and a tower in the center. From the gates to the tower is about 10kilometers. During the survival in here, you will be asked to complete a certain task. Using your many weapons and jutsu you will compete in a no rules scroll battle."

No rules didn't sound good.

"You will fight over these two scrolls the 'Heaven' and the 'Earth'. There are 78 people meaning 26 teams. Half will get the Heaven scroll and the other 13 will each get the earth scroll. To pass this test your team must make it to the tower with both scrolls."

At least half of the teams would be eliminated. The place is called the forest of death so it's not like it's going to be a picnic for those who get both scrolls.

"There is a time limit" Anko continued, "this second test will last 120 hours."

"What about dinner?!" Chouji exclaimed.

"You're on your own. The forest is full of food. Just watch out for man-eating beasts, poisonous insects, poisonous plants…and 13 teams passing is not likely. As the days go on the distance to the goal will become farther, and the time to rest will become shorter. And the area is crawling with enemies, you won't get much sleep. So not only will some fail by losing the scroll but some will die from the harshness of the course. Now I'll talk about what will disqualify you. First those that don't make it to the tower, with both scrolls, within the time limit. Second those who lose a teammate or those who have a teammate killed killed. As a rule there is no quitting in the middle, you will be in the forest for five days. And one more rule you must not look inside the scroll until you make it to the tower."

"What happens if you do?" Naruto asked.

"That will be a surprise for anyone who does" Anko said with a smirk.

She was saying a lot and I was trying to take it all in. Basically we'll be in the forest for five days trying to survive and get the right scroll from opposing teams. Even if we get the scroll on the first day we still will have to get to the tower and wait until the whole thing is over. Surviving will be the hardest part.

"A chuunin will be asked to handle classified information. This is to test your trust-worthiness. That is it for the explanations. Exchange your scroll, then choose a gate to get ready for the start. A final word of advice is don't die."  
I hesitated. Could I really do this? Some of these ninjas look suspicious, they might not go easy on us just because we're rookies. There is a chance that we could…die.

"Yahoo!" Kiba yelled. "Survival is our specialty. Hinata, don't go soft on us."

I was the weakest link in our group, I know that. My teammates would be relying on me though, I can't back out.

"Okay" I signed the forms and we went and got our scrolls.

The booth was covered so we couldn't see what scroll the other teams got. We got our scroll, the heaven scroll, and headed to gate 16.

We had thirty minutes to start when they opened the gates. We did a double check of our resources. Shino took note of our inventory and I knew he was going to come up with a plan. Since I was mostly a taijutsu fighter I didn't have that many ninja tools, I however always keep Hyuuga secret healing ointment on me so at least if one of us got injured we could use it. The instructor at the gate didn't seem to notice but there was a steady line of bugs going from Shino to the gate. He was sending his bugs ahead to scout out the area.

"If we get separated, we need to have a code in case there is an imposter. At night I expect will be the hardest" Shino said, "We will need to keep at least one person on watch, as well as set up traps. Kiba is going to be our scout. With his nose we'll be able to tell if anyone is coming from in front of us. Hinata, we'll need you to use your byakugan to see if anyone is attacking from the back. I've already sent my scouting bugs in to check for best locations to rest as well as get information on what kind of natural predators we'll encounter."

"The second test of the chuunin exam now begins!"

* * *

We entered the forest at a pretty steady rate. I knew Kiba was itching for a fight, I could tell in the way he ran. We were going for half an hour when Shino made a signal for us to stop. Setting up the trap took no time at all.

"There's someone coming" I said.

"Alright!" Kiba said, "Check and see if you can see what scroll they have."

We were walking slowly careful to avoid our own trap knowing that others would be near soon. "They're grass-nins. The one with the Yoko Ono glasses has the scroll."

Before I could say if the scroll was heaven or earth Kiba tensed. They would be close enough to hear us soon, so now we would see how well we could act. I released my byakugan.

"So basically everyone is headed to the tower, right?" Kiba said hiding his voice at all. "Then setting traps near there would be best."

"Hey, already. Where are they?" Kiba asked Akamaru.

The screams started and I know they landed in our trap. The three grass-nins were strung up by the net and writhing in obvious agony.

"Konoha jumping leaches will sense life forms and attack in a group. Five minutes of sucking and you'll be in the next world. Realizing that and setting traps where the enemy might escape to. One down" Kiba explained.

We waited until they stopped moving to cut the net and get the scroll off of the glasses-wearing ninja.

"Lucky! It's the earth scroll!"

It was lucky that we managed to find the right scroll so fast. Now our main goal would be getting into the tower without running into anyone else.

We decided to keep the scrolls separate. Kiba had the earth scroll while Shino had the heaven scroll. we made our way towards the tower.

Kiba was being a bit over confident because we got the scroll so fast. I wished he would be a bit quieter. We might be the first team to get a scroll but that didn't mean we wouldn't run into other teams on our way to the tower. We needed to remain on high alert. Shino seemed to be thinking along the same lines as me.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves…that's dangerous. Let's be cautious and not draw the enemy's attention. That is safest. Even the smallest insect, in order to protect itself will always—"

"I know that!" Kiba said. "Why do you always talk about insects, you bug freak. Stop acting like the boss, I'm the team leader."

"Um…I think Shino-kun makes a good point" I said not expecting him to listen.

"Alright, geez" Kiba complained. He would comply for now but in an hour or so when he started to get bored he'd go back to his hyper ways and we'll be repeating this conversation.

I wondered briefly if Naruto and his team was going okay.

Suddenly Kiba stopped. "Stop!" Shino and I froze.

"We should be cautious and not draw the enemy's attention right? Then Hinata, can you look about 1kilometer in that direction?"

My range had indeed gotten farther, I was sure I could do it. "Yes, I'll look."

Byakugan.

I scouted out in the direction Kiba pointed. There was a boy standing there with auburn hair and a big brown gourd on his back. I think he might have been a sand ninja, I couldn't tell because his back was facing me.

"People are fighting over there" I told the others.

"Seems like…there are six of them…" Shino said.

"Ok! Let's go check it out!" Kiba said.

What? What happened to trying to be cautious? Running towards the enemy is the opposite of cautious.

"Kiba, what are you saying? We shouldn't" Shino said. Yes, let Shino be the voice of reason.

"The examiner just said to bring both the heaven and the earth scrolls. She didn't say we could only bring one of each. So if we get more now, then we'll have less teams to worry about later."

"But…" I tried to say. That made no sense. We didn't really need extras, it would be best if we avoided conflict.

"C'mon. Let's just check it out. If it looks bad, we won't fight."

There was no reasoning with him when he got like this. His calmness didn't even last five minutes.

"Let's go!"

Kiba charged head first into danger so naturally we had to follow him.

Once we started getting close to the sand ninja Akamaru began shaking uncontrollably.

"What's going on? Why did you stop so suddenly" I asked.

"Akamaru just started shaking"

"Why?"

"He can smell out enemy chakra and sense their strength. But for him to start shaking this much... These guys fighting ahead of us aren't average" Kiba said placing Akamaru in his jacket.

This should've given us even more reason to leave buy instead we stayed and watched.

There were three rain ninjas, they seemed to be carring a lot of umbrellas. Opposite them were the sand ninjas. The auburn haired kid was standing in front of the other two. One was clearly a girl with and the other I couldn't tell, I thought he was a boy and he had something weird strapped to his back. I think it might have been a puppet. I vaguely recognized him as the kid who nearly missed the tenth question of the first test because he was taking a pee break.

We could hear what they were saying word for word, that's how close we were.

"How foolish, sand brat. Challenging us head on like this" one of the rain ninjas said.

Akamaru began to whine.

"What's he saying?" Shino whispered.

"He says that big guy is trouble" Kiba translated.

I could see where he would get that idea, they did look like trouble. My only hope was we got out of there undetected.

"You'll die" the 'big one' said.

"Enough talking. Let's do it…old man from the hidden rain" the auburn kid said. His voice was rough, a bit old for age.

"Gaara! It's best to get some information first" the guy with the puppet said. "If we have the same scroll then there's no need to fight. Pointless fighting is…"

"It doesn't matter" Gaara cut him off. Even though he looked like the youngest of the three it seemed like he was in charge.

"Those who meet my eyes…all must die!" Gaara said.

The rain guy pulled out his umbrellas "Lets hurry up and do it. Here I come!" the rain guy threw his umbrellas in the air and made hand signals. "Nippou Senbon Shower" _raining needles_

Needles began flying from the umbrellas. It looked impossible to escape. I see what Akamaru meant by dangerous.

The sand ninja didn't move at all, even as the rain guy explained that there was no escape.

The smoke cleared revealing that a tomb of sand had stopped all of the needles. That Gaara kid had been untouched. No way. The rain ninja sent more needles Gaara's way but the sand blocked them all. Gaara hadn't even moved a muscle.

"A rain of needles? Then I guess I'll make it rain blood."

"What a huge chakra. Plust that sand has a pungent odor"

"Odor?"

"Odor of blood."

"It's a sand based absolute defense" the puppet guy said.

Absolute defense? Hyuugas have an absolute defense jutsu called Hakkeshou Kaiten. Only the best of us can use it. Right now father is the only Hyuuga who can use it and when he does it's impossible for him to lose.

Not only did the sand guard Gaara but he seemed to be able to control it as well. I crept along until it wrapped around the rain guy's leg.

"Sabaku Kyuu!" _Sand coffin_

The sand compressed on the rain guy's leg making it so he couldn't move. Then the sand continued going up until it covered his whole body.

Gaara and his team picked up the abandoned umbrellas as Gaara squeezed his fist and said "Sabaku Soso" _sand burial_

I winced as blood splattered everywhere. I knew we need to get out of here fast.

The remaining two rain ninjas tried to give up their scrolls, but it was too late they were already caught up in Gaara's sand.

"Oh no! Let's get out of here! IF they find us we're dead!" Kiba said stating the obvious. We started to flee. We didn't make it very far when we realized the sand ninjas had paused. We froze trying not to make a sound. Had the sand ninjas noticed us?

They seemed to be fighting amongst themselves. If Gaara was willing to kill his own comrades surely he wouldn't have a problem killing us either.

My heart seemed to have stopped when I noticed sand gathering around us. What were we going to do? I held my breath, my mind coming up blank. And then the sand ninjas started moving again.

I let out a sigh of relief. That was close.

"Oh, that's what you meant, Akamaru" Kiba said.

We were all still reveling from our near death experience.

"What is it?" Shino managed to get out.

"Akamaru was saying that the tall guy was in trouble and going to get killed by that sand kid. Any way that kid from sunagakure…I don't know who he is but…he's way too dangerous."

That encounter taught us a lot. It would be best if we kept to our original goal of ignoring all other ninjas. We already had our two scrolls, we didn't need to be greedy and go for a third. We had to focus on our task. We needed to get to the tower.

With that in mind we had a pretty unadventurous four days. We spotted quite a few traps the closer we got to the tower. We managed to avoid them all. We got to the doors. It seemed empty enough but we weren't taking any chances.

I used my byakugan but there didn't seem to be anyone inside.

We entered still being cautious. The only thing seemed to be a poster on the wall. It seemed to want us to open the scrolls.

"It's a summoning jutsu" Shino said.

They dropped the scrolls and a big smoke cloud appeared.

When the smoke cleared standing there was Kurenai-sensei.

"Hey guys, you made it" Kurenai said. She checked her pocket watch, "and in good time too. You must probably be the first ones here. Congrats. But we still have to wait until the time is up and the other ninjas get here. You might want to rest up."

Waiting was kind of boring, but it felt good to rest up and finally feel safe again.

After a while other teams began to file in. I was happy when I saw that Naruto's team made it. I knew he wouldn't give up. The other rookie team with Ino seemed to have made it through as well.

When it came down to it only seven teams passed. Considering twenty-seven teams went into the forest I wondered how many ninjas died. It was an eerie thought.

* * *

"Hokage-sama will now explain the third test" Anko said. "Listen carefully."

"Before I explain, there is something I'd like you to know. It concerns the true reason for the exam. Why do we have our allied countries take the exam together? Is it to promote friendship between the countries? This exam is a replacement for war amongst allied countries."

I guess that made sense. I continued to listen to the Hokage explain the purpose of the chunin exams.

"A shinobi's true strength is born only through life-risking battle."

I hadn't been in any life risking battles before now. The relief of making it out of the forest alive was gone, I had a feeling that the worst was yet to come. Surviving wasn't just enough. At least then I had Kiba and Shino with me. I was sure if I was by myself I wouldn't have made it that far.

"I apologize, Hokage-sama" a man suddenly appearing before us.

"From her on, as the referee will you please allow me, Gekkou Hayate…"

"By all means" the Hokage said.

"Hello, I'm Hayate" the man looked bored or possibly sick with dark circles under his eyes. His voice also dragged, maybe he had a cold. "Before the third test there's something I'd like you to do. Um…it's a preliminary for the third test to decide who gets to participate in the main event."

Preliminary? Now? We barely got out of the forest; surely they would give us some time to rest and train up properly.

"Because the first and second test may have been too easy this year we have a bit too many people remaining"

There were seven teams remaining, which made 21 people. I don't know how that's a bit too many considering the hundreds that lined up.

"According to the chuunin exam rules we must have a preliminary and reduce the number of participants for the third test. As Hokage-sama indicated earlier, there will be many guest at the third test so the fights could take too long. We are limited in time. We'll be starting the preliminaries immediately, so those who aren't feeling well or feel like quitting please forward now."

I was tired, but I had made it this far.

The geeky looking guy with grayish hair and glasses on my right suddenly came forward saying he wanted to quit. Why would he quit after making it this far?

He was the only one to quit, I think Naruto called him Kabuto or something like that.

There seemed to be a commotion between Naruto's team but after a few minutes it settled down.

An electric score-board generated the names of the two people to fight. The rest of us went up to the second floor where we could watch the fights below.

I was too nervous to pay any real attention to the fights going on. I was too busy watching the board and wondering who I would be matched with. A thought hit me, what if I had to fight Naruto? Would I be able to do it? I took a glance at him where he seemed to be cheering on his teammate. Blush heated my face and I had to look away. There was no way I could fight Naruto. I didn't really feel like fighting at all, but I wondered who would be the easiest to fight. I didn't know the ability of most of the people who made it, only my teammates. I've fought with my teammates but never anything serious. It was just light sparring.

I thought back to all the times I had to spar at home with Hanabi or father. They never seemed to have gone well. Even in the academy, when we had basic combat training, I didn't do that good.

Hopefully I've grown since then.

The fights continued on. I watched anxiously as Shino defeated the sound ninja. No one seemed to be holding back, not even Sakura and Ino. Those sand ninja seemed vicious, there was still one left and it was that creepy Gaara.

"Picking a fight with sand guys, I wouldn't want any part of them" Kiba said after watching the sand girl Temari defeat Ten-Ten.

"They are all incredible" I said. Even Ten-ten. She might have lost the match but seemed to have a lot of skill. Everyone who fought so far seemed so incredible.

Shikamaru, who usually said everything was a bore, managed to win his fight as well. The numbers were narrowing down and there were still a lot of strong people left.

I glanced to the board as it generated names again. Naruto's named popped up and I crossed my fingers hoping I didn't have to fight him. The second name was Kiba.

I never imaged this match up. What was I supposed to do? Who was I supposed to cheer on? Why did Naruto have to fight Kiba? If I cheer for Naruto, Kiba might get mad. Maybe I could silently cheer for them both.

Everyone didn't seem to think that Naruto could win. Yeah, he might have been a little silly sometimes but Naruto…Naruto…he always has that way about him that makes me think he won't lose. He's not going to just give up. This isn't going to be an easy fight.

"Don't underestimate me!" Naruto said and he got that look in his eyes…it was the same look he had on his face when we took the first part of the test. It was just like when he told me a good ninja doesn't need to cheat. He was going to make a comeback, I just knew it.

I was on edge the whole match. At times Kiba and Akamaru seemed to have the upper hand and at other times Naruto seemed to be doing well. It was amazing Naruto even manged to trick Kiba with a clone jutsu. At the academy Naruto was never good at clone jutsu. I was worried when Kiba gave Akamaru a ninja pill.

I won't go into too much details, it was a long match.

In the end Naruto won, it was a close thing and everyone seemed shocked. I was happy for Naruto, even though Kiba lost. Naruto, was coming towards me, what should I do?

"N-Naruto-Kun"

Naruto turned around and walked towards me. I handed him a small container of the Hyuuga's Clan secret ointment. I was so nervous I was shaking.

"What's this?" Naruto asked.

"Medicinal cream" Kurenai responded saving me the trouble. I was sure I was too nervous to say anymore.

"Thanks, You're nice, Hinata!"

I blushed. Naruto called me nice! I couldn't believe I actually spoke to him again. It went better than I could've hoped. I went downstairs to where the medininjas were taking Kiba away.

"This is medicine for Kiba-Kun and Akamru-kun" I told them.

"You better start worrying about yourself" Kiba said. "The only guys remaining are you, Chouji, Neji, Lee, the sound guy, and that sand guy. Listen Hinata, if you get the sand guy, forfeit immediately!" Could I do that, just quit before the match starts. "And one more…if you get Neji then do the saem, forfeit. He's cruel to you. You'll be beaten to a pulp."

I was surprised, not many people seemed to notice how Neji treated me. I tried to hide it. I knew his problem lied with the main family and not really me, but still.

"And the next match is…."

I glanced at the board as the names popped up. It was me vs Neji.

"Damn" Kiba growled besides me.

* * *

Kiba said I should quit. He was probably right. Neji is considered a genius even amongst other members of our clan.

"I never thought I'd be facing you, Hinata-sama" Neji said with his usual smirk.

"Neji-niisan"

"The match may now began" the proctor said inbetween coughs.

"Before we begin the fight I'd like to say something Hinata-sama. You don't make a good shinobi, forfeit now!"

So he thought so too. I didn't really have what it takes to be good like those other shinobis we've seen so far.

Neji continued on and I tried not to hear what he was saying. I knew it was true. I was very gentle and kind. I don't know if I'd be a good fit as a chuunin. I didn't want to let my teammates down. It was all true, but also…I wanted to do this for me. "I just wanted to change…myself…do it….myself" I told him. Maybe he was right, maybe Kiba was right.

Everyone thought so. My father, didn't believe in me. Hanabi was always better. Even Kurenai-sensei…she was always making me feel better if I messed up during a mission. She always said kind things to me, treating me as if I'm fragile. My whole life it's been that way….

"Losers are losers" Neji said. "People cannot change."

What if I never changed? What if I stayed this way with people always…always thinking I'm a loser…always needing help from other people…never standing up for myself.

"No," I said trying to explain.

I felt my eyes begin to water. Was this really my fate? To lose and continue to lose…

"You can!" I looked up. It was Naruto-kun. He was standing up for me. ME?! "Stop deciding things about people! Idiot!" Naruto went on to yell some more.

He was cheering for me. The man who never believed in quitting, it was his ninja way.  
"Hinata stand up for yourself! This is hard to watch!"

Naruto…arigato. I steeled myself. I can't run away. No, I won't run away.

"_Byakugan!_ I no longer want to run away!" getting into stance I continued "Neji-niisan, we fight!"

I was trained in the way of the gentle fist. I could do this. Neji took his stance as well.

Focus, I could do this. I attacked first. Neji seemed to be blocking my attacks. I went on the offensive knowing that eventually he would have to leave a spot open. There! I managed to land a hit on his abdomen. That was good I could do this. I just have to keep it up. I can see his chakra points, if I just hit him in the main spots I can win this.

We parried more and more and I was getting some good shots in. Neji seemed to mostly be on the defensive, I couldn't think about something like that right now. I needed to focus on this fight.

I could hear Naruto cheering me on. He was watching me and I was doing good. I was doing good, right? Then why all of a sudden…?

I coughed and spit out a lot of blood.

It wasn't over yet I could still fight. I kept going,… how was he….I hit him again only this time I noticed. I noticed when I hit him he hit me back in my arm. I was so busy looking at him and paying attention to where I was going to hit him I didn't notice when he was getting me.

He was attacking my chakra system in my arms.

"From the beginning…" I muttered. I never had the upper hand. I had thought I was doing so well. It was unbelievable. This was Neji's strength.

Neji hit me in the chest and I went down.

Panting I slowly started to get back up. This wasn't over yet. "I don't…go back…on my word" I said, "That is also my ninja way."

I couldn't give up. Yes, I was bleeding and yes Neji had blocked my chakra but I couldn't give up… I couldn't stop because…

"You can do it Hinata!" Naruto yelled.

That was right, I could do this. I had watched him for all those years. Always. When I look at Naruto I felt courage whenever I looked at him…it was like I could try my best….he made me feel like I was actually worth something. So I can't quit now. I can because… in all that time it was just me watching him and now, now Naruto is watching me!

I went down again, spitting out more blood.

It couldn't be over, not yet. I can do this.

"DON'T STOP IT!"

I got up shakily to my feet. Naruto is finally watching me, that's why…in front of the person I …I can't look this bad.

"It's not over" I said.

"Acting tough is useless" Neji said with his usual smirk. "You can barely stand, I can see that. There is no changing destiny. There is no need to suffer anymore. Let it go"

"That's not true, Neji-niisan. Because I can see it…it's not me at all. The person lost and suffering within the destiny of the main and branch house is you!"

Everything then happened so fast it was hard to keep up. Neji came at me with the intent to kill. Before I could even blink Hayate was standing in front of me. Kakashi, Gai, and Kurenai-sensei were all holding Neji back.

"Neji, give it a rest" Gai-sensei was saying. "You promised not to lose your head over this main family stuff."

"Why?" Neji asked. "Why do even other jounins jump in….More special treatment for the main family"

That was it, I was spent. I went down to the ground. As I was closing my eyes I could see Naruto hanging over me, looking concerned.

Was I able to change…a little?

* * *

When I came to, I was in a hospital room.

I tried to remember what happened.

"Did I lose?" tears sprang to my eyes. I failed…in front of Naruto.

"Onee-sama, you're awake!" Hanabi rushed into the room.

"Hanabi? What are you doing here?" I asked. My throat felt dry and I wondered how long I had been out for.

"We heard about the match with Neji-niisan" Hanabi explained. She sat on the edge of my bed and held my hand.

"I lost" I said.

"Yes" Hanabi said and she squeezed my hand, "But at lot of people said you were brave. And this loud mouth boy with bright yellow hair said you were amazing."

Naruto-kun said that, about me? Did he really think so?

"He was being too loud so the medi-ninjas had to kick him out. They say you're going to make a full recovery though."

"Hanabi," I had to stop her before she rambled off. "Father, did father say anything?"

Hanabi diverted her eyes away from me. She didn't want to say it. He was still disappointed.

"Um…Hanabi, did the medi-ninjas say how long I have to stay here?" I asked.

"I'll go get them right now" Hanabi said. She jumped up and left the room.

Nobody thought I could pass the exams, and I didn't. I did make it farther than most. The best part is…I finally started to believe in myself. Not only did I do well in standing up to Neji but I also got Naruto to notice me.

Lying there on the bed I came up with a resolution. By this time next year I would not only make it to the third round, I wouldn't fail.

A medi-ninja came and told me that I was okay to go home. My injuries were pretty bad so I had to take it easy for the next few weeks.

I got dressed in my normal clothes and prepared to leave. I noticed both Shino and Kiba had left a signed get well card as well as Kurenai-sensei. It was probably her idea. I appreciated the sentiment anyway.

"Father!"

He was standing outside of my room.

"Let's go home, your mother was worried" father said without looking at me still.

I guess I couldn't expect him to suddenly recognize me over night. One day…one day he'll be proud of me.

* * *

Four weeks went past quickly. Today would be the day of the finals. Naruto was set to fight Neji. Even a month later I still hadn't fully recovered from Neji's attack. My body was weak and I came off as even frailer than normal. I couldn't wait to get the okay from the medi-ninjas. Kiba had began his training weeks ago. He said he was already getting ready for a rematch and there was no way he'd lose to Naruto twice.

Standing in the training grounds, I wondered if everyone in the village would be at the match today. I know that father had already left with Hanabi.

"Hinata" that voice…it was Naruto. I hadn't seen him since the preliminaries. "You're alright now?"

"Na..Naruto-kun" I blushed still unable to stop myself from stuttering in his presence. "Why are you here? Isn't today the finals?"

"Well, I just came to check out this practice field since this is the place I became a genin"

"Oh" I hadn't known that. "Why?"

"Nothing, who cares?" Naruto shrugged his shoulders.

He probably didn't want to talk to me right now, he had other things to do.

"Sorry"

Staying half hidden behind a tree I watched as Naruto started to walk away. Suddenly he turned around "Neji's a relative of yours right?" he asked.

"Yeah"

"He's strong, right"

Yeah, he was stronger than I knew. I had thought for a moment but… "yeah" in the end I wasn't able to beat him. Naruto was different though. When he said he never gave up he actually meant it. "You might be able to beat him Naruto-kun because…"

"Yeah, I'm really strong!" Naruto laughed and I couldn't think of anything to say.

We stood there staring at each other in silence. Maybe I should thank him for cheering me on, it did help me after all.

"Um….um… when you cheered for me I felt like I had become stronger. After the preliminaries ended, I started liking myself a little more. To other people it may not seem like I changed but… I….I felt like I was able to change….and it was thanks to you Naruto-kun"

"Thanks to me, eh? I'm very influential" Naruto said with a laugh.

He started to walk away again, and just like before he turned back. "Hey, Hinata….Do you really think that?"

"Huh?" I didn't understand, wasn't he always confident?

"I may appear strong to you but…that's because I act all tough because I'm so frustrated from always failing"

"That's not true!" I interrupted. "Even when you always fail…in my eyes you're a proud failure" I smiled a little because I could finally say this, "When I look at you I get an intense feeling in my heart…because you're not perfect, because you fail….You have the strength to get back up. Because I believe that's what true strength is. I think you're an incredibly strong person, Naruto-kun"

"Thanks Hinata" Naruto smiled. "You know, about you, I thought you were a plain looking dark weirdo, but a person like you I really like."

I blushed. All I heard from that sentence was "Like", "I", and "You". Did that mean…?

"Well, I'm off to the exam. You better come watch me kick that Neji guy's ass."

I stayed there watching Naruto's retreating figure. He liked people like me, if I kept this up….maybe I could get him to like me for real.

"Sorry, Hinata. I'm late. Well, Shino's fight isn't til later"

I blinked, when did Kiba get here?

"Hinata?"

"Huh? You ready to go to the match. Yes. Let's go" I said quickly trying to hide my blush.

How long had he been there? Had he heard Naruto and I talking? What if he did? What if he found out about my crush?

Trying not to think about it I followed Kiba to the stadium.

We found good seats, not too far away from the other rookies.

Naruto and Neji's match was first.

"Good luck, Naruto-kun" I whispered.

Naruto started the match by doing shadow clones. Neji seemed to dispatch them with ease, but that didn't mean the match was over. It had just started.

All of the adults around us seemed to think that Neji was going to win, but I knew different.

They traded words. Neji seemed upset about Naruto's interference with our match.

The fighting continued, Naruto used his shadow clones again, but then…. I gasped and ended up coughing. It couldn't be.

Neji was spinning in a way, it could only be Hakkeshou Kaiten.

When had Neji learned our absolute defense? The only person currently able to do it should be father. If he could do this than maybe, maybe Naruto really didn't have a chance.

I started coughing again. My father was here somewhere, was he seeing this? Did he know that Neji could use the Hakkeshou Kaiten?

"Naruto…no"

"You're bleeding" Kiba pointed out.

The more I coughed the more blood came out. Crap, I hadn't been taking it easy and I panicked.

"The damage from your heart hasn't healed yet" Kiba said.

I know, but I need to warn Naruto…

I coughed some more.

A man in an ANBU mask came offering help. What was ANBU doing here? I didn't have time to think about it. I was starting to feel worse. By the time Kiba took me away from the stadium I was already unconscious.


	4. Chapter 3

**Taming the Kyuubi: Hinata's story**

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters or situations you may recognize_

**Chapter 3: State of Confusion**

I woke up in a world of confusion, and I didn't seem to be the only one. A lot of things had happened while I was unconscious. The sand and the sound ninjas had joined together to attack the leaf. Most of the villagers were knocked out with a sleeping jutsu so they were confused as well. The village had to be evacuated of elderly and children. And the most surprising thing was what happened to the Hokage. Sandaime Hokage-sama was killed an S-rank ninja named Orochimaru.

Everyone in the village was sad. No one saw it coming. How could the hokage be killed? Who would replace him? Rumors went around and no one seemed to be trust worthy. There were some people who wanted an immediate retaliation. They wanted to attack both the sand and the sound for their betrayal. There were others who thought we should raise our defenses to make sure that no other village would attack us in our weakened state.

I healed faster and was determined more than ever to get stronger.

In other news Neji seemed to have abandoned his hate for the main family. I was surprised to hear that Naruto won their match after all. It seemed like my father and Neji had a talk and seemed to work out their differences. Neji trains with my father now, when he's not doing missions with his team. Hanabi was old enough to go to the academy now, she would be advancing in the ranks. I can't let her pass me up, and also I have to catch up with him…with Naruto.

Naruto wasn't in the village by the time I came around. I heard many stories about him when I asked around. I heard he defeated a horrible monster that the sand ninjas had conjured up. I also heard that he was currently on a mission with one of the legendary sannins.

If Naruto was on a mission with a sannin then surely they would train together and he'd come back even stronger than before.

I started training the day the medi-ninjas gave me the okay. I had to get better I couldn't just sit back and watch. I would train with whoever had free time. Mostly Shino but sometimes with Kiba and Kurenai-sensei. There seemed to be a hold off of all missions so I had a lot of time on my hands.

I trained everyday with anyone who wasn't busy. I practiced taijutsu with Hanabi, scouting with Shino, and ninjutsu with Kiba. Training wasn't just about training your body's limits either. I realized that when taking the Chuunin exams. So I often visited the library to check out books on strategies. I wanted to be better in every way, so that way next year I'll be sure to pass.

* * *

I was at the Dango shop when I heard a familiar voice. I peeked my head out of the shop and was surprised to see Naruto was back already. I slipped outside and watched him talk animatedly to a woman with blonde hair and. There was the symbol for gamble on her back. I stared at it for a moment and then I remembered. Surely it couldn't be…. The woman turned sideways to argue with Naruto and I saw the diamond on her forehead. No way. She was Tsunade, legendary sannin and the best medi-ninja alive.

"I heard she is going to be Godaime Hokage."

I jumped, I hadn't realized that Neji was standing next to me. "Really?" I asked. I wasn't born when Yondaime ruled, so the only Hokage I ever knew was Sandaime.

"I think they're going to announce it to everyone tomorrow. We can finally go back to doing missions and raising our defenses before other villages think it's okay to attack. I hope she's as good as everyone says. Anyway, I was just passing through. Hanabi wanted to know if you'd bring her back lunch. Bye."

"Bye" I said to Neji's retreating back. I think that was the first time we had a conversation where he didn't sneer or mockingly call me Hinata-sama. Things were definitely changing.

I went back to the shop and ordered a set of Mitarshi dango to go. It was Hanabi's favorite.

* * *

I stood in the second training grounds waiting for Kiba. I had been there for over two hours. Normally Kiba wasn't the type to make someone wait. Sure he'd come in a few minutes late saying something crazy like he had to help an old lady cross a street or that he helped a pregnant lady deliver a baby. No one believed him when he said those things, but this was unlike him.

We were set to train today, Kiba wanted to show me his new jutsu.

Neji was right, now that we had a Hokage again the village was busy. Almost every ninja in the village were deployed on missions. We had a reputation to uphold, after all. The only reason why I wasn't on a mission myself was because I had yet to receive clearance from the medi-ninjas.

Abandoning the training grounds I headed back towards the village. On my way I decided to stop into the veterinary clinic where Kiba's sister worked.

"Hinata-san, I'm surprised to see you here" Hana said when I entered the clinic.

She seemed to be patching up one of her ninken.

"I was supposed to train with Kiba-kun today, but he didn't show" I said. I hoped nothing bad happened to him.

"Kiba went on a mission this morning with Shikiamaru and some others, I think your cousin Neji was one of them."

Kiba and Neji went on a mission together? No way. I wondered if I was cleared if I would've been able to go. I shook that thought out of my head. I guess I'll need to find someone else to train with for today.

"Thank you" I told Hana and then I headed off for home.

Hanabi was quiet and small, and often able to get information easily. She'd make an excellent spy, if she ever chose to go that route. So that's why I went to her to find out more about Kiba and Neji's mission. I don't know why but I had a bad feeling about it.

"Uchiha Sasuke has deflected" Hanabi told me in hushed tones even though we were the only people around.

No way? Sasuke left? Why would he leave? Or rather why would he leave now? We all heard about his family massacre when it happened. He didn't really have anyone else but Konoha. But more importantly how did Naruto-kun take it and what did it have to do with Kiba and Neji.

"Why?" I asked.

Hanabi shrugged, "I heard he was going to join Orochimaru of the Sannin."

Orochimaru? The name sounded familiar. Why was it that all of three of the Sannin were making appearances all of a sudden? That's when it hit me. It was classified information but I could've sworn I heard that Orochimaru was the one who killed our Sandaime Hokage.

"No way" I said, "What does that have to do with Neji?"

"They went on a mission to bring him back. I saw them all gathered. There was Neji, Kiba, the shadow user guy from the chuunin exams, the yellow haired kid that fought Neji, and a chubby guy with the kanji Shoku _food_ on his back."

Even Naruto left? I couldn't shake the bad feeling that I had.

"Thanks" I said to Hanabi and then I left.

I keep talking about change and getting stronger and yet…and yet I never seem to be able to help my nakama.

I headed to the hospital and found the medi-ninja who treated me after the chuunin exams. After a long physical, he was able to clear me for missions and extensive training.

I had no idea how long it would take Naruto and company to bring Sasuke back but I wanted to make sure that by the next time I saw him, Kiba wouldn't be the only person with a new jutsu to show off.

* * *

The mission was a failure. Everyone came back injured and Sasuke had joined our enemy. Chouji and Neji were injured pretty badly. We donated a lot of our family's secret ointment to help them recover but it wasn't enough. We mostly had to rely on Tsunade-sama and her medical jutsu. Kiba had minor injuries it was mostly Akamaru who needed medical attention. It was the first time Akamaru had been truly injured and I knew Kiba was shaken up from it. Shikamaru as well only suffered a few broken bones and they were easily fixed. Naruto…Naruto's damage was mostly mental. I heard that nothing he did could convince Sasuke to stay, and when they had an all out battle….he lost.

I was heartbroken for him. His Ninja way was to never give up, and he failed. I wanted to be able to do something for him. Maybe if I talked to him I could help him out of his depressive mood. I went to the hospital to visit him. However when I saw him covered in bandages I panicked and fainted. Luckily enough Kiba was there to catch me. Kiba thought it was funny. I was just glad Naruto wasn't away to see that embarrassing display.

It wasn't long after that I heard Naruto was going to be leaving the village with Jiraiya of the Sannin. I didn't know how long they would be gone for so I knew I had to see him one more time before he left.

I set out a tray of tea for my father and Neji, my plan was to head out afterwards but right then my father and Neji decided to take a break. I was going on a mission myself tomorrow and it would take anywhere from a week to a month to complete.

"I heard that Naruto's leaving the village today for his training, but should you see him off?" Neji said.

I blushed and looked away. Was I that obvious? "It's okay" I said, trying and failing to sound normal.

"What? You didn't know?"

I looked up Kiba and Shino was walking up. Kiba was going to tell the story, hadn't I been embarrassed enough already?

"Hinata already went out of concern for him," Kiba explained, "But when she saw him all bandaged up she almost fainted. That embarrassed her so much that she didn't dare show her face"

"Kiba!" I said a little too late.

"I'm just teasing" Kiba said after he finished laughing. "Shino and I were just going to get one last training session before our mission tomorrow. Do you want to join us?"

"Sure" I said, "I'll meet you at the training grounds when I'm ready" I said and I rushed off to my room to save myself from further embarrassment.

I didn't go straight to the training ground after I changed into my ninja garb. Instead I went to the village entrance closest to Ichiraku Ramen. I knew Naruto wouldn't leave the village without visiting his favorite restaurant. Sure enough, after only ten minutes of waiting Naruto and a tall man with long white hair appeared.

I watched from behind a pillar as they set off. Naruto was going to set out on his own grand adventures, so I made a promise to myself that I would do the same.

* * *

_AN: I'm trying to keep the story as cannon as possible so sorry if it seems a bit too much like the series. The next chapter will take place during the three years between Naruto and Naruto Shippuden so it'll all be totally original. Thanks to everyone who has read this story so far, hopefully I'll have the next chapter up in no time._


	5. Chapter 4

**Taming the Kyuubi: Hinata's story**

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters or situations you may recognize_

**Chapter 4: The Between Years**

"HINATA, BEHIND YOU!"

Turning slightly to the left I used my arm to block the incoming attack.

"I know" I shouted back. "They have reinforcements coming from the west!"

I hit my opponent three quick times around his heart effectively closing down the chakra path to his heart. I took two steps back as my opponent fell to the ground coughing up blood.

"Kurenai-sensei?" I called.

"I'm fine" Kurenai said but I knew that wasn't true. The enemy had at least broken her arm before we were able to back her up.

"The backup is here" Shino said.

Right, no time to let down my guard.

I ducked just in time as Kiba threw three kunais, from behind. The kunais hit their marks, but our enemy used kawarimi no jutsu_ substitution_.

"Hinata, come back" Shino said. "I handle it"

I regrouped. We were surrounding Kurenai because of her injury.

We were coming back from a mission where we had to go to the ruins of a small island not too far away from Uzu no Kuni _land of whirlpools._ The mission took longer than we thought it would, mostly because we were ambushed by rogue ninjas.

Shino had already sent his bugs ahead to attack.

* * *

"Leave one conscious, we need to question him" Kurenai said.

"Hinata!"

I turned around to see Ino, Sakura, and Ten-ten walking towards me.

"Hey, what are you girls doing all together?" I asked.

"We're having a get together, you're invited" Ino said grabbing my arm.

"Eh?"

"No complaining" Tenten said.

"We're going to the onsen," Sakura said.

"But first we're going out to eat" Ino said.

"And Karaoke"

"No Karaoke!"

"Basically we're taking a break. It's so hard being kunoichi. Sometimes we just need to be girls" Ino said.

"I have to turn in a mission" I finally said.

"We already talked to Kurenai" Sakura said, "She said she'll turn in the report on the mission. She also said this was a good idea. So see, you don't have a choice. You're coming with us."

"It'll be fun, I promise" Ino said.

There was no reason for me not to enjoy a day off. I had been training hard, the chuunin exams were in a week and I had been training hard for them. I'm sure I wasn't the only one. I went along with the girls.

First we went to Shushuya. We ordered yakitori and made a lot of silly jokes. Ino flirted with a bartender and got us some sake. I didn't think it was a good idea to be drinking, especially since we were going to be going to the onsen later. I was out voted on that matter.

"So Hinata" Ino said loudly later that day when we were at the onsen. "Sakura, Tenten, and I agree Sasuke is the best looking out of our original group, but what do you think?"

"Um…."

"Hey" Tenten iterrupeted her cheeks tinted red from having too much to drink, "I said Sasuke was cute, but he's not as cute as Neji. Nor as smart, brave, or strong. Neji-san is—"

"So what about you? What do you think?" Ino asked.

Tenten looked affronted but like Ino and Sakura she was looking at me.

"Um…well…"

"Come on, we all know you're not shy" Sakura said.

"Um…Naruto-kun" I said just as a raucous could be heard from over on the boys said.

"Eh? I didn't hear you" Ino said. Then she turned and started yelling through the wall the boys for being too loud.

"So what did you say?" Sakura said.

I shook my head.

"We'll find out eventually" Ino said shrugging her shoulders. "How many cute ninjas do you think we'll meet during the chuunin exams?"

I found it funny, even though it was girls' night we spent most of our time talking about boys. While the other girls argued over which village had the cuter boys I couldn't get one boy out of my head.

Naruto. It had been months since he left the village. It was weird not seeing him around or hearing his voice. Every time I walked past Ichiraku Ramen I took a peek inside hoping that I might get a glance of my favorite blonde hair blue eyed person. I don't know, the village seemed too quite without his voice.

I wondered where he was at right now. I hadn't heard any rumors about him but I'm sure he had plenty of adventures. I wondered how much he had grown. The chuunin exams were coming up, maybe he'd make a late appearance. I wanted him to see the new me. I had gotten stronger.

* * *

There weren't as many participants for the Chuunin exams as there was last time. While we still seemed to be allies with the sand we still had trust issues with other lands we had to work out. Even though the instructors and the test had changed the principals were the same. We were tested on how well we could gather information, survive in harsh conditions, keep secrets, strategize, and fight.

Even though there were less people it seemed somehow harsher. I guess they wanted to make sure that there was no way last year could be repeated. I was able to show off my skills and talents in front of the whole village. I knew what most of them were thinking. That maybe, maybe I would actually be able to live up to the title of Hyuuga Heiress.

When I was officially named a Chuunin there was one thing that stayed at the front of my mind _the one person I wanted to see me the most, wasn't here_.

* * *

"Ichi…ni…san…yon…go…roku" I counted into the comms unit. We were scouting out one of Orochimaru's known hideouts. There were currently six people inside. "I count six possible hostiles. Plus there is a perimeter trap of some sort circling 10meters around the building."

"Okay, we're going to trip the trap to lure them out. I want you to keep watch of what's going on outside" Shikamaru said. He was the leader of this four man group. I thought it would be weird working outside of team 8, but everything seemed to be going well. I was in a team with Shikamaru, Shino, and Ino. It was supposed to be an information gathering mission.

Orochimaru had a lot of hideouts so whenever we found one we were supposed to gather as much information as we could. Orochimaru was going to no doubt attack Konoha again once he regained his strength.

He wasn't as high priority as I thought he would be. There was another threat looming over us. Only the Hokage and the jounin knew what the big threat was, but the rest of us could sense it.

"The trap is tripped be on alert" Shikamaru said.

"They're coming outside" I said.

The six sound ninjas rushed outside. They glanced around trying to figure out what set the trap.

Shikamaru used his Kagemane no jutsu _shadow possession_ to hold them into place. Shino used his kikaichu_ parasitic insects_ to drain them of their chakra.

"Ino, you're up" Shikamaru said.

"I know." Ino used her Shinten Bunshin no Jutsu_ mind clone switch_. It was her job to look inside their minds and see if she could find anything about Orochimaru. This was risky because Ino hadn't mastered the technique yet.

Instead of watching them, where they were all out in the open and I was supposed to be watching their backs.

I scanned the perimeter to make sure nothing suspicious was going on outside and then I took a look at the building and realized something was wrong.

"Ino change back" I yelled. It seemed like there was a second trap that I had missed. I wasn't exactly sure but I bet it had to do with the chakra from one of the hostages. "The building is rigged for self-destruction. It's going to blow up."

"Ino!" Shikamaru yelled.

Just as she transferred back to her body the place blew up. They had to use the Shunshin no Jutsu_ body flicker_ to get away.

"Sorry guys, I didn't see it at first" I said into the comms.

I found out later that the building was tied to one of the sound ninja's chakra. When Shino's bugs began to eat away at the chakra, the building started to fall apart.

The sound ninjas didn't seem to survive the explosion. Ino had managed to get a location of another hide out from one of the guy's head.

* * *

I was in the training grounds practicing my Juho Soshiken_ Gentle Step Twin Lion Fists_ when an ANBU member wearing a crow mask appeared before me.

"Ooh, is that a new technique."

I knew the sound of that voice. "Hanabi? Why are you wearing ANBU garb?"

"I'm going on a mission. I'm just stopping by to let you know that mom is looking for you."

I had always suspected that Hanabi was a member of ANBU, she must've joined at a young age because she never went to the academy. ANBU doesn't really have an age requirement or a skill limit. If they want you to join, you join.

Hanabi disappeared as quickly as she came.

"Mother?"

I found my mom in the kitchen.

"Oh Hinata you're here. I know you're busy training, but I couldn't leave the cake unattended or it would've burnt. Can you go out and get me a few ingredients" mom said.

"Are we having a party?" I asked. Mom usually doesn't cook this much unless a lot of people are coming over.

"Neji is coming over for dinner. I'm going to make him a big dinner in congratulations on becoming a Jounin. Kind of like the one when had when you became a Chuunin."

"Neji is a Jounin? Already?" I said awed. He passed the Chuunin exams when I did seven months ago.

It seems like once again everyone is getting stronger. I guess I'll just have to get stronger too.

* * *

"Pssst"

I didn't pay any attention to the hissing sound as I began walking home from Ichiraku Ramen.

"Psst, Hinata."

I froze and looked around. I couldn't see anyone out of the ordinary.

"Over here."

I followed the sound of the voice to see Ino crouched behind a sign.

"Ino, what are you doing?" I asked.

"Shh, I'm spying" she whispered.

I frowned we were right outside of her parent's flower shop.

"Quick, get down"

For some silly reason I ducked, as if the sign was big enough to hide the two of us.

I watched as Asuma walked out of the shop with a long thin box.

"Why are you spying on Asuma-sensei?" I asked.

"Something big is going to happen. Come on" Ino grabbed my arm and tugged me as she began to follow Asuma.

"Um…wait…I don't think this is a good idea" I managed to get out.

"Shhhh" Ino jerked my arm and pulled us behind a wall just as Asuma turned around.

"You have to be quieter if you want to be a spy" Ino scowled me. "Come on."

We followed Asuma was he made stops in several different stores.

"What's he doing now?" Ino asked me.

"He's getting a suit" I said releasing my byakugan. "Tell me again why I'm doing this?"

"Doing what?"

Ino and I looked up, so much for being spies. Shikamaru was leaning causally against the wall of the shop opposite us.

"We're spying on Asuma-sensei" Ino said.

"Seriously? Didn't we try that once when we first became gennin?" Shikamaru asked.

I couldn't imagine him doing something like this. And then I remembered that before today I couldn't see myself doing something like this either.

"He's leaving the shop. Come on, Hinata!"

"Wait!" Shikamaru said.

"SHH!" both Ino and I said. For me it was automatic, but that didn't stop Ino's smile.

We followed Asuma to the village's gate. Keeping a good distance we followed, Shikamaru in tow.

As soon as we stepped foot out of the village a ninja appeared before us.

"Hinata-sama, I wasn't aware that you were scheduled to leave the village. I must ask you to go back inside" Ko, my bodyguard said.

Ino frowned, "Nothing is going to happen to her, she'll be fine."

Ko didn't look convinced.

Ino sighed, "Fine! Follow us if you must. Damn it! Asuma disappeared."

"He's gone. Finding him would be troublesome. Let's go back" Shikamaru said.

"He couldn't have gone far," Ino pointed out, "Hinata."

Right this again. I let out a sigh _Byakugan._

I searched at a 50km radius, but couldn't find him. Where did he go that fast? I broadened my scope.

"That way" I said frowning. Asuma had changed into his new suit, and he wasn't alone, Kurenai-sensei was with him.

"Let's go" Ino said taking my arm again. "You can come with us Hinata's bodyguard but you'll have to be super quiet."

I laughed to myself. Ko excelled at being super quiet. He had been following me all day. Then again that was his job as my bodyguard. I had to have bodyguards all the time every since kumo ninjas tried to kidnap me when I was still a child.

"I'm still not sure if we should be spying on them" I whispered.

"Them?" Shikamaru said.

"He's with Kurenai-sensei" I said.

"Maybe it's a date" Ino replied.

Oh great, now I knew there was no talking her out of this.

We were in the trees watching as Asuma handed Kurenai the flowers he bought at the Yamanka flower shop.

Suddenly Tsunade-sama appeared. I ducked lower on my tree hoping we weren't spying on something top secret.

"Are you sure you want to have a private ceremony? Usually people tend to do this in front of their friends and family" Tsunade said.

Do what?

"I'd hardly consider it private when we've got little monkeys hiding in the trees" Asuma said.

Crap we were found out.

"How did you know we were there?" Ino said pouting as she jumped out of the tree.

"I knew you were following me since I left my house. The others might as well come out too" Asuma said.

So Shikamaru, Ko, and I showed ourselves.

"Hinata, you too" Kurenai said blushing.

Shikamaru looked bored and Ko looked embarrassed.

"Sorry" I said, "What exactly are we interrupting?"

"A wedding" Tsunade said. "Come gather around, four witnesses are better than none."

A wedding? I couldn't believe that Kurenai and Asuma were getting married. She always blushed whenever someone caught them together when they weren't on duty. It kind of reminded her of me actually. OF course she always denied that they were dating, so this is big news.

The wedding was simple but beautiful all the same. I was happy for Kurenai, if anyone deserved happiness she did.

* * *

Time didn't go by as quickly as some would assume. I would love to say my life was full of major events and adventures but they weren't. I did my missions, I trained, and I waited…for him. I liked to think that I left my shy self-conscious self in the past. I told myself I wasn't just waiting I was growing. That I hadn't just grown physical, I had grew mentally as well.

* * *

_Page breaks aren't appearing when I try to edit, I hate when that happens. :(_


	6. Chapter 5

**Taming the Kyuubi: Hinata's story**

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters or situations you may recognize_

**Chapter 5:** **Unexpected**

"Bye mom, I'm going on a mission, don't know when I'll be back" I shouted as I left my house.

I was supposed to be meeting up with Kiba and Shino at the center of town. It had been a short while since we did a mission as Team Kurenai.

As I got closer to the spot where we usually meet up I could hear Kiba talking excitedly to someone. Some things never change. As I turned the corner I froze. Kiba was standing there with Akamaru, Shino, and …Naruto? Naruto is here in front of me.

"Gah" I covered my mouth and quickly hid.

Naruto was here. Now. I wasn't expecting him to show up so suddenly. I mean it's been years but,…but I always imagined our reunion to be quite different. Crap! What do I do? What do I say?

I heard the rumors that he was back. They said he was in the sand helping the Kazekage.

"Hey, it's Hinata!" I looked up. Naruto was standing right next to me. So close. "Whatcha hiding here for?"

I couldn't say anything, this was just so unexpected.

* * *

I blinked a few times. When did I sit down?

"What happened?" I asked.

"You fainted when you saw Naruto" Kiba said laughing.

That's right, I saw Naruto. He looked the same. I mean I know he got taller but his voice was the same and it just took me back. Back to three years ago when I was shy and could barely speak in front of him. All those old feelings I hadn't thought about in a while just rushed right up to the surface.

"Hinata, are you okay?" Shino asked.

"Yes" I said uncertainly. I got up shakily to my feet. "Kurenai is waiting, we should go."

"Are you sure" Shino asked.

"She'll be fine" Kiba said. "She only faints when Naruto is around."

I blushed harder. "That's not true!" I lied.

We walked together to the entrance reminiscing about old times.

* * *

At the end of our mission, Kurenai-sensei told us it would be the last mission the four of us would have as a team for a while. I don't think either Kiba or Shiba understood, but the way Kurenai blushed of rubbed her stomach made me realize she was pregnant.

Kunoichi who are pregnant aren't allowed to go on missions for obvious reasons. We went out to dinner to celebrate our last mission.

We joked around and talked about our first missions. I would always remember the times when Kurenai had faith in me. She was the first person to really believe in me. And even though she would no longer be my sensei I knew that I'd always hold her in high esteem.

There was a loud noise at the Yakiniku Q next door. It seemed like Team Kakashi and Team Asuma were making a big ruckus. I smiled as I looked out the window and saw Sakura pummeling a pale guy with black hair. I hadn't met him yet but I heard his name is Sai and he's the replacement for Sasuke. I had heard rumors that they ran into Sasuke and Orochimaru during their last mission but it didn't go well.

Even if just for one night, we all seemed normal. Being able to joke around and remember when we were young. I knew this feeling wouldn't last. I just didn't expect it to go away so soon.

I was training at home when a Ko, my bodyguard appeared before me.

"Hinata-sama"

"What's wrong?" Ko was more of an operate in the shadows kind of person. When I wasn't on missions he would usually follow me around making sure he wasn't visible so it wouldn't bother me.

"Sarutobi Asuma is dead."

My eyes automatically watered even though I hadn't fully registered the words. "Asuma-sensei is…dead?"

Ko didn't need to repeat himself, his face said it all.

"No way" I whispered.

If Asuma was dead….I needed to go to Kurenai.

"Hinata-sama, wait"

Too late. I was already on my way to Kurenai's house. She had been there for me through every difficult time I had in my life the least I could do is be there to support her.

Kurenai's door was wide open. I could see her tending to her plants with her back to me.

I knocked tentatively. Kurenai turned around wiping away tears from her face.

"I am so sorry" I said as I embraced her in a hug.

We stood together in the middle of the room crying for a long time.

"I shouldn't be crying in front of you" Kurenai said, "I'm you're teacher what kind of example does that set" Kurenai whispered on my shoulder.

I remembered when I was younger hearing the rules that real shinobi don't show emotions. Well that was a lie. We can overcome all obstacles because we aren't afraid to show our emotions. Everyone has emotions so they're no point hiding them.

"You've seen me cry plenty of times" I told her, "and you always stayed with me until it was over. I will do the same for you."

A lot of people showed up for the funeral. Asuma wasn't just a good ninja, he was a good man. I stayed by Kurenai's side the whole time. After the funeral most people began to leave. I was planning on staying there with Kurenai for as long as needed, but suddenly Neji came up to me.

"Hinata-sama, we need to talk."

I looked to Kurneai, she just nodded so I assumed it was okay.

I followed Neji to the nearby training ground. It looked empty to I assumed it was safe enough to talk. "What's wrong?" I asked.

"I wanted to be the one who told you" Neji said, he paused and checked to make sure we were truly alone. "Tsunade is probably going to tell every ninja, but like I said already, I wanted to tell you away from everyone else."

"Tell me what?" I asked feeling a little worried.

"Do you know what a jinchuriki is?" Neji asked.

The word didn't sound familiar at all. "Jinchuriki…human sacrifice? What does that have to do with anything?"

"A jinchuriki is someone who has a bijuu sealed inside of them. I assume you remember the story of the Kyuubi and how he attacked the village the year you were born."

Yes, everyone knew that story. Kyuubi no Kitsune had attacked the villagers killing a lot of ninjas and civilians. Yondaime Hokage had sacrificed his life to seal the Kyuubi away. There was no one who could live up to his strength so Sandaime Hokage took over again.

"Kyuubi was sealed inside of someone?" I asked.

"Yes, before now, that was classified information. Only Jonins and above could know about the Kyuubi. But the people who killed Asuma are part of an organization called Akatsuki. Akatsuki is a group of S-rank missing-nins whose aim appears to be collecting all of the different Bijuus from different nations. It's safe to assume that the men who killed Asuma are going to be heading here next."

"Who?" I asked. I had a bad feeling about this. Why would Neji be telling me this, of all people.

"Naruto"

No way.

"Naruto is the jinchuriki. We don't know why they're targeting bijous but they've already gotten the Ichibi from the sand and I hear that the Nibi is missing. I'm telling you this because I know you care about Naruto. Akatsuki is a big threat…."

Neji kept talking but I couldn't hear him. I thought back to when I was younger. Naruto had always been alone. I remember wondering what happened to his parents. It seemed like everyone in the village disliked him for no reason. All that time they were really disliking the Kyuubi and taking their anger out on Naruto. I felt my eyes water. That wasn't fair, he had to have been a baby at that time. All those times he had suffered because of something that was out of his control.

Naruto never lost face. He always smiled and joked even when people were being openly rude to him. He had tried so hard to get people's attention. I bet all he wanted was someone to acknowledge him.

"Why" I heard myself ask.

"Hinata?"

I grabbed Neji's shoulder. "Why Naruto? He was just a baby. And even though everyone in the village hated him he tried so hard to do his best, so why? Now these Akatsuki people are going to come after him. It's not fair."

I began to cry harder, leaning on Neji to keep me upright.

"Why?" I kept asking him over and over.

"Naruto might not—"

"They killed Asuma" I interrupted knowing what Neji was going to say.

"You know Naruto, it's his ninja way to never give up. He's not going to let something like the Akatsuki keep him from becoming Hokage."

I knew he said those words just to placate me, but I allowed myself to be placated. Tomorrow I would worry about being strong enough for Naruto.


	7. Chapter 6

**Taming the Kyuubi: Hinata's story**

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters or situations you may recognize_

**Chapter 6: So this is Akatsuki**

"Hinata," Kurenai scowled me, "I don't know who is worse, you are Shikamaru. You two don't have to follow me everywhere."

I smiled. Kurenai was slowly getting back to the way she used to be. I know she'll never be exactly the same again, but I was slowly starting to see the light come back into her eyes.

"Same time next week then," I said pretending like I hadn't heard her, "I'll see you here."

Kurenai rolled her eyes as we exited Konoha hospital. I always made a point in sitting in with her during her appointments, I knew Shikamaru would be here, if he wasn't already, waiting to walk Kurenai home.

Sure enough Shikamaru was standing by the gates waiting.

I could hear Kurenai complaining to Shikamaru as they walked off. "Shikamaru, you don't have to walk me home."

"I thought you might be here"

I looked up to see Kiba and Akamaru approaching.

"Hey"

"Hey, how's Kurenai"

"She'll be fine"

"That's good. Tsunade called for us, looks like we're getting a new mission."

Together we went to the Hokage's head quarters. We met up with Shino outside. When we entered Tsunade's office Team Kakashi was already inside.

I would be going on a mission with Naruto.

"Good, just in time. Your mission will be to hunt down and find Uchiha Itachi. As you all know he is an S-Rank missing nin and apart of Akatsuki. We want him for interrogations, so take him alive if you can."

Neji was right. Shortly after Asuma's funeral all ninjas, genin and above, were briefed on Akatsuki. We were told to look out for mysterious ninjas wearing black capes with red clouds and straw hats. We were also told not to take them on by ourselves and to signal for backup if we ever ran into a member.

Uchiha Itachi was notorious in his own right. I remember hearing about him during my first year at the academy. There were so many stories about how much of a genius he was, how he was a good shinobi, but then one night he slaughtered his whole clan leaving only Sasuke alive.

We set out immediately. We were given coats because of the constant rainy weather we've been having lately.

"Hold!"

We all stopped on top of a building.

"We'll start by searching everywhere in a 5km radius, using this roof as our center. If we don't come up with anything, we'll relocate and search another 5km area and repeate until we find a clue.

"Five kilometers?" Sakura asked, "But our wireless equipment won't work if we split up that far and we'll be in danger if we're alone when something happens. We should go in teams of two at the very least. That way if we encounter any enemy"

"Relax" Yamato said. He sometimes served as a head for team Kakashi when Kakashi was injured or away on another mission. I didn't know much about him.

Kakashi made hand seal signed and then touched the roof "Kuchiyose no jutsu" _summoning_

Seven nindogs appeared.

"Here's how our patrols will work. Each person on patrol will have two of my ninja hounds as bodyguards"

"Two?" Sakura asked. "But"

"Be nice to them okay?"

The dogs went on their own to their partners.

"What about me?" Naruto asked.

"Since you're a jinchuuriki they'll be targeting you. Since Akatsuki may attack you first, you'll be going with Yamato for backup and Hinata for her scouting abilities."

So I really was going to be with Naruto on this mission. I'd have to do my best.

A big dog named Bull was also on our team.

"Let's do our best, Naruto-kun" I said.

"Right!"

"Remember that trailing Sasuke's scent takes priority and Akatsuki comes second. It doesn't matter which target you spot first, your mission is only to determine their location and report back here."

I didn't really care about Sasuke, not in the way everyone else seemed too. I was sad that Naruto lost a friend and that someone we grew up with had turned their back on our village, but that was really it.

I was more excited about finding Akatsuki. I'm not stupid enough to think I'm strong enough to take on Akatsuki by myself. But if we managed to capture one of them alive, then we could get information out of them. Information like what they want with the bijuus and how they plan on attacking Naruto.  
"Go!"

We all took off for different directions.

We were walking for a while when I noticed someone was following us. I could tell from the slightly tense shoulders that the others noticed too.

"Naruto, Hinata" Yamato whispered, "I assume you've both noticed"

"Yea"

We turned just in time to deflect three shuriken.

"You're—"

I didn't need Naruto to say who it was. It was Kabuto. The last I had seen him was during my first Chuunin exams. Afterwards he had deflected to Orochimaru. Or maybe he had always been with Orochimaru. Maybe he had some information on Sasuke.

Either way he wasn't a person to be trusted.

Yamato took charge of the conversation. "Kabuto, eh. According to the bingo book you're listed as a wanted criminal. There are orders to restrain you upon confirmation of target….you've got quite the nerve to come up to us."

"Well," Kabuto said, "I have something to talk with Naruto-kun about"

I reached inside my bag and grabbed a kunai just in case he tried something funny.

"Is it true that Sasuke killed Orochimaru?" Naruto asked.

"Nothing but Sasuke" Kabuto sneered, "Yes, it's true. More importantly I've bought a little present for you Naruto-kun."

This is a recon mission I told myself. Gripping the kunai tight I had to restrain myself. If he made a move towards Naruto I would strike him down.

"And just what is that?" Kabuto asked.

"Information on Akatsuki that had previously been gathered by our organization" Kabuto said.

Why would he want to give us information on Akatsuki? They're all criminals. Then again you can't expect a criminal to be loyal to another criminal.

"Why did you bring that?" Naruto asked.

"To give to you" Kabuto said.

I didn't believe that. He would've had to set out to find us. I would've noticed if someone was following us earlier.

"So are you planning on trying to make a deal or something" Yamato asked.

"No, I don't expect this to be worth much when dealing with Konoha."

"Then what? It's not like Akatsuki is after you?"

"This is a mere token of thanks for Naruto. Akatsuki _is_ after Naruto after all"

"A token?"

"After Orochimaru died… I found myself not knowing who I was. Without a parent or a country I was taken in by the enemy. I've been moved to countless villages as a spy since I was young. Things like countries and villages had no meaning for me until Orochimaru-sama. But that presence is gone. The pain of not having an identy, I think you understand that Naruto. 'Am I Naruto Uzumaki or am I Kyuubi' I'm sure you've asked yourself such things…"

This guy was making me angry just assuming things about Naruto.

"You chose to believe in your own power, with persistence you overcame the gazes directed at the Kyuubi. That's how you came to know your identity. But I never attempted to surpass Orochimaru-Sama, I merely clung to his power. But now I truly understand how you felt…"

Kabuto began to take off his hood and glaces. "I decided I too wish to be like you Naruto-kun and for that reason with Orochimaru-sama now integrated into this body I plan on finding a new me."

It was gross, half his face was different, and his body… he had done some experimenting with it.

"Thanks Naruto, Orochimaru-Sama is the symbol of rebirth and as a goal a greatness meant to be exceeded by me. He'll continue to live inside of me."

That was wrong on so many levels.

"You integrated him?" Narto asked.

"I merely took part of Orochimaru-sama's remains after Sasuke killed him and transplanted it into my body, that's all."

He said that's all as if it wasn't the creepiest thing I had ever heard of. Who would mutilate their body like that just to discover who they were? It made no sense.

His arm was already scaly like a snake. I used my byakugan to see how much Orochimaru's cells had taken over. A third of his body was covered in the foreign cells. It was obvious they would take over completely one day.

"Part of me is doing everything it can to resist being taken over, I can truly sense that part that strives to surpass Orochimaru-sama." He even sounded demented.

"Then keep striving by all means" Naruto said charging forward, "after we shut you away in Konoha's prison!"

I stayed back and watched as Naruto and Yamato attacked Kabuto.

When it looked like they had him I realized it was just a clone.

"Behind you!"

"After I become able to completely control Orochimaru-sama's power I'll return to fight you Naruto-kun. But you'll be my second target….first I'll exact revenge on Orochimaru-sama's murderer, Saskue-kun." Kabuto disappeared as quickly as he had arrived.

We stood there staring at the book Kabuto left behind. Do we trust it? It could easily be a trap.

Yamato pulled out a scroll. He quickly wrote something down and then did hand signs and sealed the book away.

"We'll have it checked out for traps back at the village. We'll compare it with our information and see if it has anything useful or if he was just messing with us."

We were coming out of the clearing when up ahead there was a giant blast. I was bright and looked like a giant ghos.

"What was that?" I asked just as it exploded.

"Let's go!"

We headed towards the site. It was so huge I knew we likely wouldn't be the only people heading towards it. We rushed as fast as we could but we still weren't the first people there. The rest of our squad was already there.

"Naruto!" Sakura called when she saw us.

"Looks like everyone else noticed too," Yamato said, "What happened here?"

"Sasuke was right here until a moment ago" one of the dogs said.

"There are still traces left" Kiba added.

"So what does that mean?" Naruto asked.

"The surrounding damage indicates there was a battle but…" Shino said.

It was possible Sasuke could've been caught up in the explosion, but I doubted that that's what Naruto wanted to hear.

"I recognized one of these other scents mixed with Sasuke, I smelled it back in town. It looks like Sasuke is travelling with a few people" the first nin-dog said.

Orochimaru had a lot of followers, Sasuke probably wasn't the only one who deflected.

"That means…" Sakura muttered. We all knew what it meant. It meant that Sasuke wouldn't voluntarily come back to Konoha any time soon. If he was creating his own team he had his own missions in mind.

"Sasuke's probably formed his own platoon" Kakashi said reaffirming what I was thinking. "Two of these six other scents are Akatsuki, but…."

"What are we waiting for? Let's follow Sasuke's scent" Naruto said.

I knew it wouldn't be that easy.

I really felt for Naruto to come this far, only to be let down.

As Naruto debated with a dog I noticed Kiba was concentrating. When he struck that pose he could smell things even better than Akamaru.

"One possibility is that he was obliterated by the explosion, but he could've also used a time/space ninjutsu to teleport himself somewhere safe" Yamato said.

"It looks like the latter" Kiba said. "My nose is even better than a ninja hound's. I found Sasuke."

"Lead the way, Kiba" Naruto said eager.

So we arranged ourselves in the best possible formation before setting off. I was near the back to make sure that no one would follow us. After a while we suddenly stopped. It appeared that Sasuke had somehow gotten wind of our approach and his scent was splitting up in several different directions.

"They probably have a sensor ninja in their ranks" I heard Kakashi explain. Suddenly Naruto used is Kage Bushin no Jutsu. _shadow clones_  
It took a short while before a sudden light hit Naruto's eyes. "Found him!" "Good job, Naruto" Kiba said, "Which way?"

"Follow me"

So we all turned east and began to follow Naruto.

We went quite a ways before a man in black robes with red clouds suddenly appeared. We all stopped. I heard Akatsuki always traveled in pairs so I was alert for a sneak attack.

"Wow! I didn't think I'd find a bunch of Konoha ninjas way out here. And it's eight on one, that's so not fair!"

I had to admit this guy wasn't who I thought of when I thought of Akatsuki. I wouldn't let myself be fooled by his joking tone. He was one of the people who wanted to capture Naruto."

"He's not in the list of Akatsuki that Kabuto left behind" Kakashi said. When did he get the list? And when did he have time to read it? I though Yamato sealed it so it could be checked for traps.

"Oh, that's because I'm new to the company, nice to meet you" the Akatsuki said.

"Don't start acting cocky yet, we haven't even started!" Kiba yelled.

I really didn't want Kiba to rile the guy up. What if he came here for the sole purpose of getting Naruto?

"Don't make any sudden moves. Just observe him for now. He's severly outnumbered, we've got the advantage" Kakashi said.

"You're not taking me seriously? Not cool!"

One of Naruto's shadow clones jumped out from behind the trees and attacked the Akatsuki. I watched in amazement as Naruto flew straight through the guy.

How was that possible? Did he use a really fast Shunshin no Jutsu _body flicker_? He wasn't affected at all but I could've sworn Naruto went right through him. Is this the power of Akatsuki?

Naruto attacked again.

"You're too full of yourself. What's a kid like you gonna do to me?" the Akatsuki yelled and then he kicked Naruto's clone. The fact that he could hit someone meant he was indeed solid.

"Naruto!"

"Relax, it'll take more than that to stop Naruto" Sakura said. She was right, of course, "Just keep your eyes on the enemy."

I wanted to but….

I watched the Akatsuki carefully wanting to know the secret of his jutsu, at the same time I listened to my teammates. Kakashi and Yamato seemed to be under the impression that the Akatsuki was just playing with us. It was true he had yet to seem serious.

"Maybe now is a good time?" the Akatuski said. "What kind of game should we play now?"

"We don't have time to screw around with you" Naruto said.

"We need to stay right on Sasuke's trail" Shino said.

"You weren't with us last time, Shino! You better work twice as hard" Kiba said in his usual way.

"All right everyone. Let's take this joker down" Kakshi said.

"Get in formation B and attack" Yamato said.

Kiba, Akamaru, and Naruto attacked first. As a rule Sakura wasn't allowed to fight because she was the only medical ninja. I stayed nearby guarding Sakura. I was more of a close combat type fighter and it would be no good to get up close to the enemy if we didn't know the extent of his abilities. Sai was providing long range support while Yamato and Kakashi backed them up.

No matter what formation we used or what jutsus it seemed like nothing worked.

"How can he avoid all of our attacks so easily?" Yamato asked after failing to trap him using his Mokuton _wood-style_ jutsu.

"Kakashi-sensei" I said.

"I know" Kakashi said. He seemed to realize it too. The enemy was using some sort of perfectly timed time/space jutsu.

The others discussed what kind of technique he must be using. I thought about it myself and nothing seemed to fit.

"It must be some kind of special clone or maybe a projection created with genjutsu" Sakura said.

"I thought so too, so I checked the entire surrounding area with my byakugan ofr other chakar sources…the only place with his chakra is coming froum right here" I said.

"What do you think, Kakashi?" Yamato asked.

"It can only be some kind of technique that's unique to him. That makes things difficult for us but, Shino…."

"I know" Shino said and a lot of bugs suddenly left his body.

"It's times like these when secret clan techniques like Shino's are most useful" Kakashi said.

"Ew!" the Akatsuki said, "You're an Aburame? Not the bugs! Gross!"

Even at a time like this he was still joking. It seemed like he heard of Aburame before, they are perhaps the most well known bug users and it's known that they live in Konoha. I wondered how much the enemy knew about us.

"You're actually pumped up, Shino" Kiba said excitedly as if we weren't facing a dangerous opponent.

"Of course I am" Shino said, "Because I was left out of the previous mission."

We all stood back and let Shino attack. The Akatsuki seemed to be focused on avoiding the bugs. I've worked with Shino for a long time, I was smart enough to know that there was no escaping from his bugs.

I watched closely as the bugs began to close in on him.

"Hijutsu: Mushidama" _Secret technique: Insect Globe (some translate it as Insect Sphere)_

The bugs enclosed the Akatsuki covering his body completely. I watched with my byakugan, the enemy hadn't escaped.

"How's it look, Hinata?" Kakashi asked.

"I can confirm the target's chakra, he's still inside Shino-kun's bugs" I said.

"Yamato!"

"On it!"

Using his Mokuton Yamato sent wood to surround the Akatsuki.

"Shino?"  
"He's still there" Shino said, "The movement of my destruction bugs indicate they're still absorbing his chakra"

"Suck him dry, Shino!" Naruto yelled.

Suddenly he was gone.

The Akatsuki was no longer inside the swarm.

"How can this be?" Shino asked.

"My bugs were reacting to his chakra and then they just lost him. This is unprecedented"

"Was it a teleportation jutsu?"

"No" Shino said, "Teleportation is merely high-speed movement. The bugs still would've sensed the direction he moved in and pursued. They wouldn't have let him escape."

"He just vanished" I told them.

"His whole body disappeared. Can he just make himself vanish?"

"Assuming he can make himself disappear at will, it makes sense that he could do the same with individual body parts too. In other words he could remove whatever part was about to be attacked making it appear like the attack just slipped through" Sakura said.

" That would mean he's definetly making our attacks go through him, not simply defending or avoiding" Kakshi said.

"I found him, he's up there" I said pointing to a tree. We all turned to look.

The Akatsuki was standing there as if he was completely unaffected.

"Hi guys" he teased.

Kiba attacked with his Garouga _fang over fang_.

The Akatsuki dodged the move. Then the branch besides him started to deform.

Something that looked like a giant fly trap appeared. Was this another Akatsuki? I couldn't tell, it definitely didn't look human.

"Well?" the Akatsuki asked.

"It's all over" it said.

"He's in the Akatsuki file Kabuto left behind" Kakashi said.

"Goddamnit, more people trying to delay us?" Naruto yelled.

"Uchiha Itachi is dead" the thing said.

We all froze.

Sasuke killed Itachi? But Itachi was so strong, he had killed all those ninja's in one night, he was an S-Rank criminal. Had Sasuke's strength really grown that much?

"Whoa! Didn't see that coming" the Akatsuki said. "Not. Just as I predicted." I think that last sentence was the first time he said something seriously.

"Sasuke collapsed like, a second later though…what do you say? He's probably fading fast" the thing said.

Crap, if we were going to recover Sasuke, now would be the time. However if these guys get there first…

"Yo, Aloe Vera, Where the fuck is Sasuke?" Naruto yelled.

"Aloe Vera?" the thing said "just ignore him"

It seemed like it had split personality.

"I'll play with you children some other time" the Akatsuki sasid.

I heard Kakashi mutter the word 'Sharingan' before the Akatsuki waved by and disappeared into thin air. So he really could make himself disappear.

"We have to get to Sauke before them" Kakashi said.

We took off immediately. There were dark clouds rising over the mountains to our right.

"Hinata see what's going on at 4 o'clock!"

Using my byakugan I checked the mountains. There were black flames everywhere.

"There's an area 10km from here surrounded by powerful chakra and …the forest is burning…and the flames are black."

"That's it, everyone follow me" Kakashi ordered.

We moved out as fast as we could, but even that wasn't fast enough.

"I've got the scent" Kiba said, "They're already gotten to Sasuke."

Naruto swore again. we stopped when we came upon a mass of trees burning in black flames.

"What is that?" Sakura asked.

"It's one of Itachi's techniques" Naruto said. I vaguely wondered when Naruto would've run into Itachi before.

Yamato stayed behind to put out the flames and we continued forward.

We got to the place where Sasuke's scent ended but neither he nor Itachi's corpse was around. We were too late.

I disliked failing missions. I disliked even more the feeling of letting Naruto down. I knew there was nothing more that I could do. I even went on the mission with a full mindset that we might fail, but I wasn't expecting to feel like this. After all those hours of training I put in I still hadn't managed to help the person I cared about the most.


	8. Chapter 7

**Taming the Kyuubi: Hinata's story**

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters or situations you may recognize_

**Chapter 7: Konohagakure**

They say bad things happened in threes. Asuma-sensei's death was the first. Jiraiya, of the Sannin, was the second. He too was killed by the Akatsuki. Who were these guys? And who would be next?

The news of Jiraiya's death affected everyone. Tsunade was more on edge than ever, we all were. We weren't given much information on the Akatsuki member who called himself pain. Rumor had it that it wasn't just one person but six and they all had the Rinnengan. The Rinnengan. It's a thing of legend, I didn't think it actually existed. Much like my Byakugan or the Uchiha's Sharnigan , the Rinnengan is a doujutsu. It's the only one that hasn't been seen since the Sage of the Six Paths. The Sage of the Six Paths was said to be the founding father of ninjutsu, he basically created the ninja world. If the enemy had his eyes then who knew what he could do?

Naruto was the most affected. Jiraiya was his mentor, other than Tsunade, no one knew him better. Naruto had left the village. The only people who knew where he went were the higher ups. We all knew that any day Akatsuki might come calling. I guess we didn't expect it to happen so soon.

I was with Kiba and Shino in the middle of town when we heard a loud sound. There was an explosion ahead.

"What is that?" Kiba asked.

I used my byakugan to scout ahead. I was able to zoom in around the sight, it looked like….someone was there with spikey hair and a black clock with clouds.

"It's Akatsuki" I said.

How did they make it this far into the village? What happened to the barrier corps what was supposed to inform us of any intruders or the jounins who were doing regular patrols around our perimeter? Were they taken out as well?

Before I even had time to consider it there were several more explosions coming from all over the village. Just how many people had broken in?

The emergency alarm went off, it was now time to execute the emergency war plan. Just like when Orochimaru killed Sandaime. The first step would be to eliminate the sneak attackers. That wouldn't really apply to now so we'd skip to the second part, evacuating the children and elderly. And once all the civilians were safe we'd counter attack.

We split up.

"Ko!" I called and instantly he was at my side.

"I'm going to help evacuate the civillans" I told him. My father and Hanabi were away from the village. My mother was supposed to be delivering medicine to the hospital. I only hope she stayed there.

"Right!" Ko used his Byakugan and scanned the area. "There are so much going on. There's no way one person is doing this"

"It's Akatsuki" I said. I used my Byakugan as well and began to search for people who needed help.

"There, three kids are trapped under a fallen wall" I said.

We rescued as many people as we could. A lot of people were gravely injured. I did the best I could to get them to the hospital but some people couldn't be moved.

Ko was right, there was more than one person. There were many fights going on at once. I could see in the distance Kakashi was fighting someone.

"Hinata-sama, look."

A giant slug appeared next to the Hokage Residence. That was Tsunade's summons. She'd be able to heal the villagers, with that and hopefully join the fight.

We continued rescuing villagers, but it just seemed like the amount of casualties was never ending.

"Hinata, Ko!"

We looked down to see a bunch of small slugs. Tsunade must've told the slug to split and go to each villager.

One of the slugs crawled up to my shoulder while the other's kept moving.

"I'm supposed to heal those who needs help and relay information about Pein" Katsuyu, the slug said.

"What do you know so far?" Ko asked.

"There are six of them, they all go by the name Pein, and they seem to have different abilities. One can only summon, one can repel all ninjutsu. Kakashi, Choji and Choza were fighting two Peins and were able to gather some information about them. The Pein with the short hair and three rods in his nose can…."

There was so much information to take in. I'm sure they had someone analyzing it all.

"Something is going on" Katsuyu said. "The Pein who was fighting Tsunade suddenly pulled back. Wait, it seems like they all pulled back. Somehow they know Naruto is not here."

"Look, up there"

I glanced up where a Pein was rising above the village. He was gathering a mass amount of chakra.

"Whatever he's about to do, it is not going to be good" I muttered.

A bright light covered everything and I had to shield my yes. Ko threw himself on top of me and I could felled weight being added on top of us. I was daze and wasn't quite sure what had just happened. It seemed like that one moment had lasted forever. The silence was heavy.

I tried hard to move. There was a heavy ringing in my ear. I managed to pull myself out. I was surrounded by rubble and Ko still seemed under it.

Ko's mouth was moving but I couldn't hear him over the ringing in my ears.

"What happened?" I asked, even though I couldn't hear.

_Byakugan_ most of the area was still foggy but I couldn't see anything of the village for miles. The whole village was destroyed. My eyes watered, how could the whole village be destroyed that easily?

"Hinata-sama, Hinata-sama!" Ko called desperately.

"Ko!" I answered, "Are you okay, you look hurt?"

"Are you alright, Hinata-sama?" Ko asked, completely ignoring my question.

"Yes, I'm fine. Never mind me, we need to take care of your injuries" I said.

"If anything were to happen to you while Hiyashi-sama and Hanabi-Sama were away it would be my lifelog shame. Please do not worry about me" Ko said.

He shouldn't be worried about me, especially when it looks like his leg is broken.

"Katsuya!" the slug was still around. "Would you be able to heal Ko?"

"Hinata-sama!" Ko protested.

"As the Hyuuga Heiress, it is my job to look out for the family when father is not here. Katsuya?"

Ko looked astounded.

"I am trying to heal everyone, but I don't have enough chakra. I can stop his bleeding, but I wouldn't be able to fix any broken bones" the slug said.

"Thank you" I whispered and then I went back to searching my surroundings.

Just as the smoke was finally clearing out, a big cloud of smoke appeared on the outskirts of town. Was it a summoning?

I focused on that area until the smoke cleared. There were six toads and Naruto.

"Naruto-kun" I whispered.

I don't know what it was but something about him looked different.

Standing across from Naruto were the six Peins. Tsunade and an member from ANBU was there as well.

I squeezed my hands together. Would they be able to take out Pein by themselves?

One of the Pein's charged at Tsunade and Naruto took him out with one hit. It happened so fast. So this was the level Naruto was on now.

The ANBU took Tsunade away, so it was just Naruto and his toads fighting Pein. He was outnumbered, I couldn't just let him fight on his own.

I stood up and was ready to go there.

"Hinata-sama, don't!" Ko said seeming to guess what I was about to do.

"Naruto is alone fighting for this village, I can't just—"

"If you join him, you'll just be a burden. You'll only get in the way" Ko said.

I knew all about being a burden. I have been a burden on my family all my life. I could never live up to my father and no matter what I did I only seemed to be in the way. Maybe that's what I'm good at.

"Hinata," Katsuya said interrupting my thoughts, "Naruto-kun has asked that everyone stays out of the battle. He has mastered sage mode. We have to have faith in him."

"But…" I know what they were saying had made sense, but how did they just expect me to sit here and watch as Naruto fought someone so strong he destroyed the village in a matter of seconds?

I wrestled with my thoughts for a moment. If I did go there and only get in the way, things could end badly. I didn't want something bad to happen to Naruto because of me. But what if…what if they were wrong and sage mode isn't enough to kill Pein?

I closed my eyes and steeled myself. Fine, I would stay. But if things started to get bad, I'd interfere. I can't let Naruto die.

With a new resolve I looked onto the battle.

Naruto is strong, he'd never give up. This is our ninja way. He won't let Pein defeat him, there was no need to worry.

Naruto seemed to have no problems at first. He took out the Peins easily while the frog handled all of the summons.

It seemed like one of the Peins were able to bring the others back to life after they had been defeated. Who where these people? First the Rinnegan and then this power?

Naruto seemed unfazed and he attacked with a new strategy. He threw smoke bombs that made it hard to tell what was going on. My hands were crossed over my stomach trying to squeeze away the uneasiness I felt. Naruto took out the Pein who could revive the others. Good now there were only two Peins left. The one who destroyed the village and the one who could negate all ninjutsu.

Naruto rushed forward and the Pein that would negate jutsu grabbed him. This was bad. I began biting my lip. It looked like he was sucking up all of Naruto's chakra. I couldn't just sit back doing nothing. Ko said I would just be in the way but… if I'm able to distract Pein, even for a little bit Naruto could be set free.

"Nature chakra is hard to control" Katsuya said.

I didn't know what that had to do with anything so I continued to pace. Watching nervously. Something weird was happing to the guy who was holding Naruto. It looked like he was turning into a frog. 'Nature chakra is hard to control' Katsuya had said. So that must be what she meant. Slowly that pain began to petrify.

Naruto broke the stone-Pein's arms freeing himself.

I was able to breathe again, I hadn't even noticed I was holding my breath.

Pein used his pull-in technique on one of the two toads left. Naruto rushed forward trying to stop him, but Pein stabbed the toad with one of those black sticks, killing him instantly.

This wasn't good. I began to pace back and forth.

Pein pulled Naruto in using the same jutsu. Grabbing Naruto's neck Pein slammed him down on the ground then he put one of those black sticks through Naruto's hand.

"No way" I muttered.

Naruto had been caught.

Pein didn't attack anymore, it seemed like they were talking, this couldn't be good.

I didn't know what those black sticks were but it looked like they were responding to chakra.

Pein pulled out another one of those black sticks.

I couldn't just stand here, I couldn't.

"I'm sorry" I whispered to Ko. I knew he'd be in trouble with my father if anything happened to me, but I couldn't just sit and wait any more.

I rushed forward ignoring Ko and Katsuya's pleas to stay.

I couldn't stay. There was no way. Naruto was the one who had saved me from bullies when I was little. Naruto never let his pain show when the villagers openly disliked him. Naruto had cheered me on during the Chuunin exams. Naruto had fought with Neji and changed his mind about the branch and main families. Naruto was always doing something for me. What kind of person would I be if I didn't return the favor?

I gathered chakra in my right hand and aimed for Pein's face.

Pein dodged the attack, but I had managed to get him away from Naruto.

"I won't let you lay another finger on Naruto!"

Naruto now had seven of those horrible black sticks pinning him down. I had to get those off of him. If I could manage that, Naruto would be able to continue his fight with Pein and everything would be fine.

"What are you doing here?" Naruto asked. "Get out of here! You're no match for him."

"I know" I told him. "I'm just being selfish."

"It's dangerous" Naruto said.

I know that too. That's why I…that's why I have to be here.

"I'm here of my own free will. I used to always cray and give up. I nearly went the wrong way... but you showed me the right way. I was always chasing you, wanting to overtake you. I just wanted to talk with you, be with you. You changed me and your smile changed me so…. So I'm not afraid to die to protect you!"

As I gathered chakra to use my hands and feet I said the words I had never been able to admit before, even to myself "Because, I love you!"

And then I attacked. I didn't attack Pein, instead I focused on breaking the sticks pinning Naruto to the ground. A sudden force pushed me away.

I had forgotten, not only could this Pein pull things in, he could also push them away.

It seemed like attacking the sticks only made them break not, fully come off. I had to use something stronger. Luckily I had finally perfected my Juho Suoshiken _gentle step twin lion fist._

Chakra shaped like lions covered my fist and I began to attack Pein himself. He was fast, but I already knew that. He dodged my attacks but seemed to be slowing. It was a good thing he didn't have the others so full use of his of his Rinnengan.

I managed to land a blow and Pein started to faulter.

Good, I used that time to back away and break two of those black sticks immediately.

Suddenly I was pushed away again. I fell hard to the ground. My body didn't want to move, but I had to get up. I could hear Naruto calling for me. I was almost there…I couldn't die now…I had to get up, and go to him. This could not be the end… I wouldn't let it. My eyes began to drift shut. Maybe it was my imagination but I could've sworn I said a large many tailed fox in Naruto's place.

* * *

There was someone leaning over me. I tried to focus. "Naruto?" I barely managed to get out.

I blinked. It wasn't Naruto standing over me it was Neji. "Neji-niisan?" When did he get here? He was supposed to be on a mission.

I coughed a few times and tried to move. My whole body ached, and that's when I realized Sakura was healing me. What happened? A big toad, two little toads, Team Gai, Tatsuya, and Sakura were all surrounding me.

"What happened?" I asked. Even as I said it I began to remember. Konoha was under attack by a man named Pein, Naruto showed up with a number of his toads and they fought, and then…and then Pein had Naruto pinned down. I had to do something so I tried to help out. Did I fail?

"Is Naruto still alive? Did he defeat Pein?" I asked.

Everyone in the group shared looks. What did that mean?

"Don't worry about that" Sakura said, "just rest up so you can be healed properly."

"But…" I had to know.

"HINATA!" I almost jumped. I never heard Neji use that tone before, he sounded like my father. "Relax and let Sakura heal you."

Why wouldn't they answer me?

I drifted off again, and when I woke up I felt much better. Sakura must've finished healing my broken ribs. I sat up slowly. It seemed like a few more people had gathered around.

"Thank you, Sakura" I said.

"You shouldn't have done it" she replied. Maybe, maybe not.

"Naruto defeated the sixth Pein" Katsuya said.

So he did it. He had managed to defeat Pein after all.

"How is he? Is he injured?" Sakura asked.

"He's exhausted but fine" Katsuya said.

He's fine? Thank god, thank god he's safe. I let tears run down my face. Naruto was going to be fine and the village is saved.

"Where is Naruto now?" Gai-sensei asked.

"He's heading for where the real Pein is hiding" Katsuya said.

"That's to reckless" Neji said, "Let's go after him."

Gai seemed to think this was a good idea.

"But he doesn't want any help" Katsuya said.

"No way! He can't do this alone. He's already weakened. Take us to him!"

"Naruto has caught up with Shikaku, Inoichi, and Youta, they seemed to realize the location of the real Pein as well. Naruto is trying to convince him to go alone" Katsuya said.

"But that's stupid, he can't do everything by himself" Rock Lee said.

"We'll just have to wait and see."

So we waited.

Waiting sucked. There wasn't much I could do in my condition but my body was telling me I needed to sleep but I didn't want to miss it when we finally got word of what was going on.

After what seemed like hours noise began to fill what was left of the village.

"What's going on?" Sakura asked.

Neji used his byakugan, "It seems like something is happening with the villagers."

"Naruto managed to talk Pein into reviving all of the people who died in the attack" Katsuya said.

"Is that even possible?" Tenten asked.

I remembered how Naruto had taken out two of the Peins but they popped back up minutes later as if nothing ever happened.

"Yes, that seemed to be one of t he Pein's techniques" I said.

"The original Pein is dead, Naruto is heading back to the village."

That was good news.

Slowly all of the villagers began to gather. I don't think it was organized or anything but everyone who could move did. I found myself surrounded by Hyuugas who were demanding to know how I was doing. Either Katsuya or Ko had told them what I did and they all seemed worried.

This was a first. I always thought the other clan members just looked at me like the spoiled heiress who needed to be protected, but this was something different, they actually seemed like they cared, like I was appreciated.

Kakashi had left to bring Naruto back to the village. When they arrived the village erupted in noise. Everyone wanted to touch him, thank him, just simply be near him. I knew that feeling, I had been feeling it for years. I was happy that Naruto was safe, and happy that the village was finally treating him like someone who belonged.

Things would be different from here on out. We would rebuild Konohagakure, and when we did, it would stand stronger than it was before.


End file.
